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MURRAY’S ESSAYS 

ON 

POCAHONTAS 

AND 

PUSHMATAHA 

Historical and Biographical 

WITH 

Copious Xotes on Oklahoma History 

■ V 

BY THE 

Hon. WILLiAM H'. Murray' 

President: Constitutional Convention ^ 

\ 

Speaker: House of Representatives, First Legislature 

Member: Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth Congress 
^ from Oklahoma 

Founder of Murray Colonies of Americans in East Bolivia 


Privately Printed 
PAINE PRINTING COMPANY" 
Ardmore, Oklahoma 


Prices: Paper Binding, 60c—Imitation Leather Binding, $1.25 


Copyright Applied For, 1924 
By WM. H. MURRAY 
All Rights Reserv’ed 





y(o A/f 


S^itraltnn 

—To— 

^'Somebody, staunch and true/^ 

Who^s my aid ivhen I^d work to dOy 
'^Who kept a supply of love and cheer 
For 7ne and ours for many a year, 

An excluded world neW reviewed our life; 
Enough—for somebody^s you, Dear Wife — 

ALICE HEARRELL MURRAY 

To whom this little volume is affectionately 

DEDICATED 

By ye Husband, the Author 


Itbltngraplig 

The writer is indebted to many authors of a 
very early period in the preparation of the 
Essays. Where a statement made in them would 
seem strangely or strikingly new to the general 
public, he has freely quoted the text of the author 
to avoid appearance on his part of over-drawing 
the virtues of the subjects of the Essays. 

Students of History are more particularly 
referred to the authorities following: 

Pocahontas 

(tapt. John Smith’s ‘‘Annals,” Windham 
Robeson’s ‘‘Geneology of Pocahontas,” found 
only in the Historical Eecords of Virginia and 
Congressional Libraiy, Washington, D. C-; 
'“Gen. Cabell and Plis Kind,” Congressional 
Library; Thos. L. McKinney’s ‘‘Indian TribeS;” 
"‘Murray Collection of Indian Books,” Okmuh 
gee. A.lso Records of Jamestown Colony. 

General Pushmataha 

Historical records of Alabama and Alissis- 
sippi; also Cushman’s “Choctaws, Chickasaws 
and Xatchez,” Pickett’s “Alabama,” McKin¬ 
ney’s “Indian Tribes,” Claiborne’s “Gen, Sam 
Dale,” Jas. H. Malone’s “Chickasaw Nation,” 
etc., found in the “Murray Collection” of Indian 
Books—Indian Book Association, Okmulgee, 
Oklahoma, and War Department Records. 


t t. 




« 


I 


* 




f 

t 


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V 





t 


AUTHOR’S PREFACE 


The writing of these ESSAYS on General 
Pushmataha and the Indian maiden, Pocahon¬ 
tas, has been a sincere Labor of Love, growing 
out of a desire to see to it that their virtues may 
be brought out in concise form to the attention 
of the public, whose source of such knowledge— 
to some inexcessible; while others are indif¬ 
ferent to the merits of man or woman not of 
their own cast, particularly if of a racial strain 
not generally considered as possessing extra¬ 
ordinary virtues or as capable of very great or 
noble achievements; and still others who habit¬ 
ually supress the truth, if indeed they ever 
comprehended fully a truth of history, if that 
truth does not harmonize with their previous 
notions,^ which they mistake for “principles” 
and “convictions.” 

To the writer, there is no such thing as “con¬ 
victions” without knowledge and a sincere love 
of truth—only “the truth shall make you free.” 

When the writer came to that portion of the 
Old Indian Territory, known as the “Nation” 
of the Chickasaw Indians, and settled in their 
old capital, Tishomingo, the^ hfst conception of 



II 


PREFACE 


Indian activity, social or political, was observed 
in the campaign to ratify “The Atoka Agree¬ 
ment,’’ the beginning of the end of the old 
“Nation;” and, with like movements in all the 
Five Civilized Tribes, the forerunner of a Sov¬ 
ereign State in the American Union of States. 
The opposing elements—the pro and con of the 
“Atoka Agreement”—were Philippic with The 
Treaties of “Doakville” and of “Dancing Rab¬ 
bit Creek;” the “Net Proceeds,” the “Leased 
District” with sundry verbatim quotations of 
those treaties, and of constructions placed on 
them by the Supreme Court and that of their 
own—all this was unintelligible jargon to the 
writer as clearly it was to everybody else, except 
the Indians. To fathom it, the writer made dili¬ 
gent inquiry of the whereabouts of the Treaties 
of ‘ ‘ Dokeville ’ ’ and of ‘ ‘ Dancing-Rabbit Creek. ’ ’ 
Informed that they might be found in Vol. 7, 
U. S. Statutes-at-large and the Chickasaw Law 
Book, he began the study of them, conceiving 
that as a lawyer, a knowledge of them was of 
prime importance. He was astonished to find 
that of all his professional associates, not one 
agreed with him; but he began in earnest and 
was soon rewarded with contracts to represent 
the “Nation” in several causes at very satis¬ 
factory retainers. 

During these early years I had the pleasure 


PREFACE 


III 


of meeting with J. F. McKeel, a well educated 
white man, then Superintendent of the Harley 
Institute, one of the four academies of the 
Chickasaw Nation, financed and managed solely 
by the Tribe. Ambitious to become a lawyer he 
frequented my company aq)parently with as 
much pleasure as I, a stranger in a strange land, 
without friends, did his. Replying to his fre¬ 
quent questioning on how to master the law, I 
advised him first to master the Indian Treaties 
—all of them—we read them together. 

A few years later he hung out his shingle” 
at Ada, Oklahoma, where now for a dozen years 
he has been recognized as the best Indian land 
title lawyer in the section—indeed it would be 
near the truth to state that iMcKeel’s opinion or 
an abstract of an Indian land title is the best 
to be had in the State south of the Canadian 
River—Alike distinction held elsewhere by 
Geo. S. Ramsey, Esq., of Muskogee. Some 
two years ago, we met and reviewed those 
old days, when suddenly he exclaimed: ^‘Do yoil 
know, all I know of land titles is due to my 
taking your advice: bMaster the Indian 
Treaties’ as my first lessons in the law?” This 
incident is recited merely to illustrate that a 
diligent search for the truth hath its abundant 
reward,—as it had in McKeel’s case and mine. 


IV 


PREFACE 


ill learning the truth of our surroundings which 
could be known only by studying those sur- 
roundings—the Indian, his institutions, antece¬ 
dents, and best social and political achievements. 

Too many men care nothing for those—they 
love the Indian with the tepee^ feathers, and 
blankets, and the more feathers the better, be¬ 
cause he may cajole and flatter such an Indian 
and rob him ad lihitum, ^‘within the law;’’ but 
away with the brave and wise Indian who will 
match wits with all comers and ask no odds. He 
does not want to hear of such an Indian, or be¬ 
lieve one ever existed. ‘ ‘ Supremacy of the 
white race,” did I hear? Yes, I too, believe in 
that, not that the white race possess all the 
virtue, wisdom, and patriotism—not that the 
white man is the most truthful, most honorable, 
most moral, for he is not; but only because the 
functions and spacious powers of government 
are generally safer from despotism in the hands 
of the white than any other race, that and that 
only. But truth, justice, and giving credit to 
whom credit is due, is another thesis altogether. 

While many people study the Ethnography 
of the North American Indian, few, indeed, 
make any pretense of a full study of their Eth- 
hdldgy; and therefore, fail to realize the wide 


PEEFACE 


V 


differences in the intellectnal capacities of the 
several tribes—that there is as wide gradation 
as between the Hottentot and the imperious 
Scotchman. The best example of this is shown 
in comparing with the 0sages, the brilliant 
lawyer and orator, John Palmer of Pawhuska, 
who, though a member of the Osage Tribe, is a 
pure blood Sioux, the Tribe of that consummate 
military genius. Sitting Bull. 

Here and there I came across a volume that 
seemed to be authentic and there another, usual¬ 
ly rare and long out of print, telling the true 
story of the North American Indian. I secured 
the book at whatever cost. At length I found 
myself in possession of several hundred vol¬ 
umes, ninety per cent of which books were out 
of print and difficult to obtain. These, (in order 
to preserve them) I but recently transferred to 
an Indian Library Association at Okmulgee, 
Oklahoma, with Judges A. L. Beckett and 
Orlando Swain, as guiding spirits, pledged to 
their protection. 

Through perusal of these volumes and other 
sources, I became acquainted with the best and 
noblest individuals of their race. And I find 
that from Powhatan, Phillip, Logan, Piominco, 
Tecumseh, Chief Joseph, Sitting Bull, Sequoyah, 
Red Cloud, Geronimo, Quannah Parker, and 


VI 


PREFACE- 


Lone Wolfe; Tishominco, LeFlore, Asseolav 
Ridge, Ross, Overton, Mcintosli, Rogers, John 
Brown, General Plesant Porter, Buffington,, 
Green McCurtain, to Douglas H. Johnston—all 
giants of their race and of their respective* 
tribes—but there stands head and shoulders- 
above them all, like a giant oak in a wilderness 
of its kind, that superb form and grand char¬ 
acter, General Pushmataha, the only Indian 
given military burial, befitting a conquering 
hero, with the Rank of General, by order of the 
War Department, and Supreme Commander of 
this Mighty Republic. And by his side (to 
whom is due the gratitude and profoundest 
reverence given mortals from the English- 
speaking nations of both sides, the Atlantic) 
stands there that forest Queen, noble in her 
simplicity of manner; for her chaste and spot¬ 
less life, her guileless Christian faith, her self- 
sacrifice out of loyalty and love—Pocahontas, 
the savior of Jamestown Colony^ the first 
English settlement in, and making possible this 
Republic. 

Moreover it is of greatest importance to 
teach the Indian boy and girl of today that what- 
-ever may have been the white man’s conduct, his 
future may best be assured by emulating the 


PREFACE 


VII 


careers of Pocahontas and Pushmataha, who 
were ahvays and under all circumstances friends 
of and co-workers with the white race. Such 
doctrines cannot reach their highest concepts of 
morality and honor by attempts to teach them to 
ignore their ancestors or to forget their race 
and racial virtues. Pride in ancestors is the 
basis of amhition and pride in future noble 
deeds and achievements. 

The truth must be told both as to the vices of 
their own race and the conduct of the white 
man, that descriminating judgment to follow the 
\'irtuous, wise, and noble of both races, may find 
an abiding place in the Indian child’s mentality. 

Phis is the cue for sure progress in all the 
Indian schools of the land. A literary produc¬ 
tion foi* such use as a text-book was the ambition 
of the writer. If, in these Essays, he shall have 
failed, he. sincerely hopes that his failure may 
inspire others to an effort to pen such a school- 
text-book, which shall prove alike edifying to 
the youths of both races, leading to greater har¬ 
mony, because of a better understanding be¬ 
tween them. Indeed any white child’s moral 
conception may be improved by a study of 
f^ushmataha’s ‘‘Forest Forum” speech, reply¬ 
ing to Tecumseh, found in the Appendix of 
this volume; and his life was a personal example 


VIII 


PREFACE 


of the precepts of his oration. These are the 
motives that prompted the author—^no financial 
gain was or is expected from their publication. 
Should they fail of this purpose though bring¬ 
ing him pecuniary reward, he would feel a sore 
disappointment. 

Wm. H. Murray, 

March 1, 1924. 

Tishomingo, Oklahoma and 
Yacuiba, Bolivia, S. A. 



INTKODUCTION 


JX 


INTRODUCTION 


I know of no person better fitted, by temper¬ 
ament or by acquisition of knowledge on the 
subject, to write upon Indian characters and In¬ 
dian themes than is Mr. Murray, who has spent 
the greater portion of his majority life among 
the Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes. 

As President of the Constitutional Conven¬ 
tion of the State of Oklahoma, he was instru¬ 
mental in seeing that the Indian was recognized 
by the Constitution on a par with his White 
brother. 

As a representative in the Halls of Congress 
he had opportunity still further to study the In¬ 
dian problem from the viewpoint of a National 
law-maker. Taking advantage of that oppor¬ 
tunity he devoted himself assiduously to a study 
of the history and development of the Indian 
tribes throughout the Nation. 

I recall a conversation with him in Washing¬ 
ton a few years ago in which he advised me of 
the efforts that he was putting forth to gather 
material that he could some day use in giving 
correct information with regard to the North 



X 


INTRODUCTION 


American Indian and particularly the outstand¬ 
ing figures in Indian history. 

Due to his admiration of the Red Man for 
his indomitable courage and simple morality, 
and to his admiration of the White Man for his 
genius in Democratic government; due to his 
own nature as a student and to his keen sense 
of justice, coupled with his opportunities for 
learning at first hand, Mr. Murray has been 
placed in a most enviable position as a writer 
on Indian subjects. 

In publishing these little biographical 
sketches of Pocahontas and Pushmataha, Mr. 
Murray has rendered a real service to History. 

With his unswerving faith in Truth as the 
liberator of men’s minds, the author has, with 
characteristic painstaking, gathered together 
historical fragmentary references to these two 
outstanding characters of the Indian race, in 
order that the complete picture in its simple 
truth may free the prejudiced mind, and stimu¬ 
late the sympathetic to emulation. 

In short, the work issues an appeal to the 
White Man and to the Red Man alike to lay down 
the hatchets of distrust, born of ignorance of 
their respective natures, and to unite their ef- 


INTEODUCTIOISr 


XI 


forts for the upbuilding of a Nation that shall 
endure because it is founded on Justice. 

Every loyal American will wish to read these 
simple stories, so vitally a part of the early be¬ 
ginnings of his government. They are pioneers 
in Indian Hero Classics and as such should take 
their place in every public school of our land 
along with the supplementary readings of other 
Nation ^s Hero Classics. 

I consider it fortunate for the people of Ok¬ 
lahoma particularly, and I might well say the 
Nation at large, that Mr. Murray has given of 
his talents and has found the time to make this 
contribution, both literary and historical. 

Milas Lasatek, 
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 

March 15, 1924 


OInntPutH 


Title Page_Forepart of Book 

Dedication_Forepart of Book 

Author’s Preface_Forepart I 

Introduction_Forepart IX 

Picture of Pocahontas_:_1 

Pocahontas, Essay on_ I 

Picture of Pushmataha_'__29 

Pushmataha, Essay on__:_29 

Appendix_61 

“Forest Forum Debate” Between 

Pushmataha and Tecumseh, Appendix_61 

Pushmataha’s Great Speech 

Peplying to Tecumseh, Appendix_63 

Chief’s, Personal Sketches of. Appendix_71 

Five Civilized Tribes_93 

Removal of Five Tribes, Creek Contract_98 

Index in Rear of the Volume_108 


















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POCAHONTAS 

‘‘The annals of profane history, civilized 
and savage, may be challenged to produce a 
parallel to the story of Pocahontas. It has 
all the stirring elements of romance genially 
blended with the grave simplicity of truth and 
nature. Like an unexpected oasis in the midst 
of the interminable desert—like a solitary star 
of the first magnitude, beaming suddenly out 
from a cloudy sky—the person and history of 
the daughter of Powhatan stands out in bold and 
surprising beauty on the severe page of ab¬ 
original life. Her story, as an eloquent writer 
has said, is that exquisite episode in the history 
of the New World, which, appealing equally 
to the affections and the imagination, has never 
lost the charm of its original loveliness and 
freshness, even though a thousand iterations 
have made it the most familiar of all our forest 
stories. It is one of those tales, which, combin¬ 
ing several elements of the tender and the 
tragic—like that of the Grecian daughter—like 
that of the Eoman Virginias—more certainly 
true than either of these legends, and not less 
touching and beautiful,—the mind treasuresup, 
naturally and without an effort, as a chronicle 


2 


POCAHOKTAS 


equally dear to its virgin fancies and its sweetest 
sensibilities/’ 

The foregoing is the judgment of her, penned 
by Thomas L. McKinney, for many years in the 
Indian Army service and later head of the In¬ 
dian Bureau of the War Department during the 
early part of the last Century, in his ^‘Indian 
Tribes,” in three volumes, rare and long since 
out of print. 

We are first introduced to Pocahontas in her 
heroic act of saving the life of John Smith and 
perserving the First English Colony on this 
hemisphere from total annihilation, from the 
scanty records of Virginia Colony at James¬ 
town ; modern history, however, is so meager as 
to leave a doubt in the student’s mind as to her 
family connections or posterity. Nevertheless, 
we have sufficient authentic record of all these 
as to leave no doubt; in fact, from them we have 
mental certainty of her, and of her numerous 
posterity down to date. 

We have not a full length deliniation of her 
life during the early days of Jamestown. Not a 
full drama, but we know she made long pil¬ 
grimages through the somber forest at great 
personal risk to warn the colonists of danger or 
to give them aid; that when a child of ten to 
twelve years she amused herself among the set¬ 
tlers and for this last act two centuries later a 


POCAHONTAS 


o 


minister of tlie New York City pulpit attacked 
her sense of propriety for turning ‘‘somersaults 
for the amusement of the men at Jamestown” 
during these tender years; overlooking the same 
character of amusement, including leap-frog, in¬ 
dulged in by little white girls of equal age dur¬ 
ing very recent years. Moreover, we do not 
have a series of bold and striking vivants in 
which she is revealed in lifers completeness. But 
she was always the principal ambassadress be¬ 
tween the wily Powhatan, her father, and the 
English. During seasons of scarcity, when the 
Colony stood in danger of famine, often through 
their own indolence, her angel visits were fre¬ 
quent, and that of her own volition, supplying 
them with corn and meat. All this is vouched 
for by Captain John Smith both in the “Annals 
of Virginia” and in a letter later to the English 
Queen, that during the two or three first years, 
the child Pocahontas, “next to God, was the in¬ 
strument of preserving the Colony from death, 
famine, and utter confusion. ’ ^ 

A few years later, at the age of young 
womanhood, when the instincts of chastity and 
refinement, counsel modesty and seclusion, we 
find her visits less frequent until they cease 
altogether. That there were other cogent rea¬ 
sons, may be logically surmised from the known 
records that there were ruffians—the fore-run- 


4 


POCAHONTAS 


ners of Southern ^‘white-trash,”—among the 
stag Colony of Jamestown. In the meantime 
because of her ministrations to the strangers, 
she has lost the paternal patronage of her 
father. 

Here, we prefer to copy the recital of the 
most pathetic, as well as the most romantic, with 
apparent intervention of Divine Providence, of 
all these remarkable events in which she was 
more the central character than was the First 
English Colony—this from one of her most 
faithful chroniclers: 

“Sick, weary, and almost disheartened. 
Smith has returned to England. Dale is Gover¬ 
nor of Virginia. The relation between the 
colony and Powhatan is that of open hospitality. 
Fire and sword have ravaged the native villages 
The Indians, become tierce, revengeful, implac¬ 
able, have resolved to withhold entirely their 
wonted supplies, and starve out the remorseless 
intruders. Pocahontas, having, by her unchang¬ 
ing sympathy for the white men, and her con¬ 
stant interference in their behalf, lost the confi¬ 
dence, and estranged the affections of her father, 
has left her home, and is living in comparative 
retirement with her cousin, the chief of Potomac. 
Just emerging from youth to womanhood, she 
can no longer, as when a child, mingle personally 
in the strife or sports of men, or expose herself, 


POCAHONTAS 


5 


unprotected, to their rude and admiring gaze. 
Her mission as messenger and active intercessor 
is at an end. The breach between the contend¬ 
ing parties requires more than temporary and 
htful acts of mediation to heal it. No arm, not 
even that of Hiis dearest jewel and daughter,^ 
can arrest the summary vengence which the 
savage Powhatan has resolved to visit upon the 
head of any white man found in his domains. 
He has decreed the .utter extermination of the 
intruding race—a decree which Providence de¬ 
feats, by the interposition of Pocahontas, in a 
now character and without her own consent.^’ 

‘ ^ Her retreat at Potomac becoming known to 
Governor Dale, Captain Argal is dispatched, 
with a vessel, to seize her, and bring her to 
Jamestown. By the present of a copper kettle, 
her trusty guardians, the king and queen of 
Potomac, betray her into the hands of her cap- 
tors. Pretending a deep curiosity to see the 
great canoe, the queen prevails on Pocahontas 
to accompany her on board the English ship. 
When there, she is coolly informed that she is a 
prisoner, and must go as such to Jamestown. 
What a return for all her acts of kindness, her 
heroic self-sacrifices in behalf of the strangers— 
her frequent exposure of her life in their behalf, 
and the voluntary forfeiture of all that was dear 
in the confidence and affection of a doting 


6 


POCAHONTAS 


father, or the cherished associations of home. 
If Pocahontas could not, with confidence, and a 
sense of personal security, go on board an Eng¬ 
lish ship, or traverse the streets of the English 
colony, as if it were her own domain, what re* 
liance could be placed in human gratitude, or 
human honor ? Her tears and her entreaties are 
equally vain. The ship is immediately gotten 
under way. The king and queen of Potomac are 
set on board their canoe, and paddle off, yelling 
piteously. * * * purpose of Governor 

Dale, in taking possession of the young princess, 
was, by her means, to secure a more favorable 
relation between the colony and the natives. He 
immediately sent to Powhatan, by an Indian 
messenger, to inform him that Pocahontas was 
his captive, and that her treatment there would 
depend upon the future conduct of her father. 
If he continued to seek the destruction of the 
colonists, her life might be the forfeit. But, if he 
would make a treaty of amity, and faithfully 
keep it, at the end of a year she should be set at 
liberty. The heart of the monarch fainted when 
he received these tidings. He had laid out and 
matured, together with the chiefs of the neigh¬ 
boring tribes, most of whom acknowledged his 
supremacy, a plan of operations which was to 
overwhelm, and annihilate the colony. Upon 
the accomplishment of this plan, all his thoughts 


POCAHONTAS 


were centered. It was this only which recon¬ 
ciled him to the temporary estrangement and 
absence of his ^darling daughter and dearest 
jewel. ^ Her presence, her gentle soothing in¬ 
fluence, her profound reverence and tender re¬ 
gard for the White man, and her never-failing 
interposition, by council, or by stratagem, to 
rescue them from his power, interfered, on all 
sides, with his determined plan, and paralyzed 
his darling purpose. He was, therefore, willing 
to part with her, for a season, and rejoiced that, 
in her secluded retreat, she would be sheltered 
from the storm of war which was gathering 
over her home, and ignorant of all its horrors, 
till they were consummated in the destruction of 
his enemies. To that issue his plans were fast 
ripening. He burned with intense eagerness 
for their execution. The day of doom was at 
hand. The instruments of vengeance was pre¬ 
pared. The arm of the executioner was about 
to fall, when lo! interposed between him and his 
victim, Hhe jewel of his crown, the angel of 
his heart, the dearest daughter of his house — 
not as when, six years before, in the simple 
eagerness and passionate resolve of childhood, 
she flung herself upon the body of a solitary 
captive in her father’s tent, and warded off the 
deadly blow—but, passively, herself a prisioner 
—involuntarily, like a shield forced to stand be- 


8 


POCAHONTAS 


tween the assailant and the assailed, she is there, 
in the budding beauty of early womanhood, in 
her modest, timid, retiring gentleness, a foil to 
the vengeance of her father and her race, and 
the guardian angel of doomed colony. ’ ’ 

“Paralyzed with disappointment and ragCy 
Powhatan received in sullen silence the tidings 
of his daughter’s captivity. For many weeks, 
he sent no full reply to the message of the 
Governor, informing him that he held her as a 
hostage, and demanding concessions, as the 
price of her ultimate enlargement. So dear was 
she to his heart, to his people, and to all the 
tribes of his wide domain, that they could not 
find a vote in the council to proceed with the 
work of ruin, in which she was to be involved. 
At the same time, the proud and fretted monarch 
could not submit to the terms demanded for her 
ransom. He sent back seven Fnglish prisioners, 
whom he had doomed to sacrifice, each with a 
musket, which had been stolen by the Indians. 
He promised them, upon the release of his 
daughter, to make full satisfaction for all i)ast 
injuries; to enter into a treaty of peace with 
them, and to give them five hundred bushels of 
corn. This was not enough. The Governor de¬ 
manded a surrender of all the swords and fire¬ 
arms, which had been obtained by the Indians 
either by purchase or theft. They were beconi- 


POCAHONTAS 


9 


ing expert in the use of them, and, in proportion 
as they did so, were losing their sense of the 
white man’s superiority. This demand was too 
much for the ambition of the king. He indig¬ 
nantly refused to answer it, and broke off the 
negotiation.” 

‘‘Determined still to carry his point. Gover¬ 
nor Dale, at the head of one hundred and fifty 
armed men, went up the bay to Werowocomo, 
with Pocahontas in his train, and proposed to 
the king to restore her to his arms on the same 
terms as before. This proposal he answered 
with scorn and fight. He refused to see the Gov¬ 
ernor, or his daughter. At his command, the 
Indians attacked the intruders, but were driven 
back with loss, and some of their houses were 
fired. Two of the brothers of the fair captive 
went on board the English ship, and had an af 
fecting interview with their sister, whom they 
tenderly loved. But nothing was accomplished. 
The only issue of the adventure was an increase 
of hatred and hostility on the part of the savage 
monarch, and a firmer resolve to hold no inter¬ 
course or traffic with the enemy. ’ ’ 

“Returning to Jamestown, still a prisoner 
and a hostage, the daughter of Powhatan, was 
treated with all the consideration and kindness 
due to her rank and character, and to the ser¬ 
vices she had rendered the colony. She was 


10 


POCAHONTAS 


taught to read, and carefully instructed in tli^ 
truths of religion. Apt to learn, and tenderly 
susceptible to every good impression, she re¬ 
ceived, with eagerness and avidity, the glad tid¬ 
ings of the gospel. They met at once, and fully 
supplied, the longings of a heart that yearned 
for something })urer and higher than the cold 
and dreamy superstitions of her native my^ 
thology. They gave full scope to the aspiruT 
tions of a soul panting for an immortality till 
then unrevealed. With wonder and awe she 
contemplated the character or the one oidy liv¬ 
ing and true God—to her, till then, the unknown 
God. With inexpressible gratitude, and rap¬ 
turous delight, she listened to the story of a 
Saviour’s death, and the way of salvation thus 
opened to the transgressor. With simple faitli, 
and unhesitating confivdence, she received the 
crucified One as her Redeemer and portion, re¬ 
joicing in the liope of forgiveness tlirougli his 
l)lood. A new world was o])ened to her view. 
A new life was revealed to her ravished thought. 
A wliole immortality, l)right, ineffably bright, 
with visions of glory and blessedness which eye 
had not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man 
conceived, burst upon her willing faith, like the 
splendors of noonday upon one born blind, yet 
always yearning for liglit. Pocahontas became 
a new creature, as truly so in a spiritual, and 


POCAHONTAS 


11 


religious sense, as in the outward and entire 
transformation from an uncultivated child of 
the forest, to a refined, intelligent woman—the 
trophy and the ornament of Christian civiliza¬ 
tion. ’ ^ 

The extreme loveliness of her person, the 
amiableness of her heart, the almost faultless 
purity of her life, together with the noble traits 
of her history, had won the admiration of her 
teachers. Baptized with the name of ‘^Rebecca,’’ 
and received into the Christian church, she was 
an object of just pride, as well as the tenderest 
regard, to all the colony—the first fruits of the 
western wilderness—^^a precious exotic, trans¬ 
planted from the wilds of America to the garden 
of the Lord.^^ 

Among the adventures of that colony were 
some gentlemen of good family, of polished edu¬ 
cation, and Christian character. Of these, John 
Rolfe, a liephew of the King of Norway, was one 
of the most distinguished for excellency of edu¬ 
cation, character, and firmness of principles. 
This young knight was brough into close affinity 
with the forest queen as her teacher and pre¬ 
ceptor. 

Genuine mutual affections sprang up be¬ 
tween them of reciprocal love, which was 
approved by Governor Dale. Likewise Powha¬ 
tan readily consented to her marriage with the 


12 


POCAHONTAS 


White man and upon that bond formed treaty 
of perpetual amity, sending to Governor Dale 
a chain of pearls” as a pledge of his fidelity. 
But not willing to venture himself, he sent his 
brother, Opachisco, and two of his own sons to 
witness the ceremonies of union and to sanction 
them on his behalf. Opachisco “gave the brkh* 
away” and her brother confirmed the compact. 
“In this auspicious event, the whole mission of 
Pocahontas was fulfilled” says one of her chron¬ 
iclers, and it would seem so with the sanction 
of an over-ruling providence. 

The affections of the old chief Powhatan, 
loosing the fruits of his first born, were gar¬ 
nered up in a younger daughter whom the Eng¬ 
lish Governor had vainl}^ endeavored to obtain 
as a second link of the chain of friendship in the 
gift of the ‘ ‘ chain of pearls. ” “ The proposal, ’ ^ 
says the chronicles, “was as impolitic as it was 
unkind. It touched the only chord in his iron 
heart that vibrated to the tune of tenderness.” 
That chord was all but snapped in tearing Poca¬ 
hontas from him by violent hands. This second 
attempt to take the last “dearest jewel” filled 
his heart with pathetic bitterness and proud in¬ 
dignation. He demanded of the messenger the 
“chain of pearls” as the authentic credentials 
of his mission. Then the chronicles have him 
thus answering; 


POCAHONTAS 


L3 


said he, ^‘urge me no further. Seeh 
not to bereave me of my darling child or to 
exact any new pledge of fidelity from me or my 
people. We have had enough of war. Too 
many have fallen already in our conflicts. With 
my consent there shall not be another. I have 
the power here, and have given the law to my 
people. I am old. I would end my days in 
peace and quietness. My country is large enough 
for both, and though you give me cause of quar¬ 
rel, I will rather go from you, than tight with 
you. This is my answer.’’ And this was his 
only answer—how full of force, of pathos, of 
dignity, of honor to the barbarian prince, of 
merited reproach to the grasping Christian Gov¬ 
ernor ! 

The marrige of John Rolfe and Pocahontas 
was blessed with a son who was christianed 
Thomas, born in 1615. 

Later it dawned upon the West Indian Com¬ 
pany that it would prove a great feat—^ ^ adver¬ 
tisement” we Americans would call it—to take 
the American Queen” and her royal consort 
to England. All being arranged, the company 
fitted out a special ship for the purpose and in 
early spring of 1616, some three years after 
their marriage, with their young son, set sail. 
Her fame had preceded her and in England 
Pocahontas became an object of general regard 


14 


POCAHONTAS 


and attention—the fame of her heroism, her per¬ 
sonal charm and beauty, her noble character, 
and unaustentatious piety, had preceded her 
and was known to all, both court and subjects, 
and she was treated with affectionate regard by 
both the nobility and church dignitaries and with 
adoration by the general public as the ‘^protec¬ 
tor and savior of Jamestown Colony/’ Her title 
as “daughter of a King” gave her easy and 
free access to palace and court where she' was 
received by Her Majesty, Queen Anne and her 
Royal Consort, the pedantic James. 

Captain John Smith was then in England 
and addressed Her Majesty, Queen Anne, a let¬ 
ter which is here reproduced, at the risk of 
breaking continuity, as confirming in part the 
foregoing and showing the conditions of the in¬ 
fant colony, as well as showing the style of 
English, and spelling till Noah Webster elimi¬ 
nated a lot of e’s. 

“To the most high and virtuous Princess, 
Queen Anne of Great Britain. 

‘ ‘ Most Admired Queen: 

‘ ‘ The love I beare my God, my king, and my 
countrie, hath so oft emboldened mee in the 
worst of extreme dangers, that now honestie 
doth constraine mee presume thus farre beyond 
myselfe, to present your majestic this short 
discourse; if ingratitude, bee a deadly poyson 


POCAHO^iTTAS 


15 


to all honest vertues, I must be guiltie of that 
crime if I should omit any means to be thanhful. 

“So it is, that some ten jmares agoe, being in 
Virginia, and taken prisioner by the power of 
Powhatan, their chief king, I received from this 
great salvage exceeding great courtesies, es¬ 
pecially from his son, Nautaquaas, the manliest, 
comeliest, boldest spirit I ever saw in a salvage, 
and his siter, Pocahontas, the king^s most deare 
and well-beloved daughter, being but a child of 
twelve or thirteen years of age, whose compas¬ 
sionate, ])itifull heart, of desperate estate, gave 
me much cause to respect her; I being the first 
Christian this proud king and his grim atten¬ 
dants ever saw, and thus inthralled in their 
barbarous power, I cannot say T felt the least 
occasion of want that was in the power of those, 
my mortal foes to prevent, notwithstanding all 
their threats. After some six weeks fatting 
amongst those savage courtiers, at the minute 
of my execution, she hazarded the beating out 
of her own brains to save mine; and not onely 
that, but so jorevailed with her father, that I 
was safely conducted to Jamestowne, where I 
found about eight and thirtie miserable, poor, 
and sick creatures, to keepe the possession of all 
those large territories of Virginia; such was the 
weakness of this poore commonwealth, as had 
the savages not fed us, we directly had starved. 


16 


POCAHONTAS 


^‘And this relyfe, most gracious Queen, as 
commonly brought us by this lady, Pocahontas; 
notwithstanding all these passages when incon¬ 
stant fortune turned our peace to ware, this 
tender virgin wmuld still not spare to dare to 
visit us, and by her own fairies, have been oft 
appeased, and our wants still supplyed; were it 
the policie of her father thus to employ, or the 
ordinance of God thus to make her his instru¬ 
ment, or her extraordinarie affection to our na¬ 
tion, I know not; but of this I am sure—when her 
father, having but eighteen with me, the darke 
night could not affright her from comming 
through the irkesome woods, and with watered 
eyes, gave me intelligense, with her best advice, 
to escape his furie; which, had he knowne, he 
had surely slaine her. Jamestowne, with her 
wilde traine, she freely frequented as her 
father’s habitation; and, during the time of two 
or three yeares, she, next under God, was still 
the instrument to preserve this colonie from 
death, famine, and utter confusion; which, if in 
those times, had once become dissolved, Virginia 
might have laine as it was at our first arrivale to 
/this day. Since then, this business having been 
turned and varied b}^ many accidents from that 
I left it at; it is most certaine, after a long and 
most troublesome warre after my departure, be 
twixt her father and our colonie, all which time 


POCAHONTAS 


17 


she was not heard of, about two years after she 
herself was taken prisoner, being so detained 
iieare two yeares longer, the colonie by that 
meanes was relieved, peace concluded, and at 
last, rejecting her barbarous condition, was 
married to an English gentleman with whom at 
this present she is in England; the first Chris¬ 
tian ever of that nation, the first Virginian ever 
spake English, or had a child in marriage by an 
Englishman; a matter, surely, if my meaning be 
truly considered and well understood, worthy a 
Prince’s understanding. 

‘‘Thus, most gracious ladie, I have related 
to your majestie, what at your best leasure our 
approved histories will account to you at large, 
and done in the time of youre magestie’s life, 
and however this might bee presented you from 
a more worthie pen, it cannot from a more hon¬ 
est heart. As yet T never begged any thing of 
the state, or of any, and it is my want of abilitie, 
and her exceeding desert, your birth, meanes, 
and authoritie, her birth vertue, want, and sim- 
plicitie, doth make niee thus bold, humbly to be- 
seeche your majestie to take this knowledge of 
her, though it bee from one so unworthie to bee 
the reporter as myself, her husband’s estate not 
being able to make fit to attend you magestie; 
the most and least 1 can doe, is to tell you this. 


18 


POCAHONTAS 


because none so oft hath tried it as myselfd. 
And so I humbly kisse your gracious handes.’’ 

Whether Pocahontas was indebted to this 
warm-hearted and eloquent appeal, for the at¬ 
tentions lavished upon her at court, and in all 
the high places of the land, we are not informed. 
She was received with signal favor by the Queen 
and James, her royal husband. ‘‘For her sake, 
and in consideration of her rare virtues, and her 
signal services to the suffering subjects of the 
crown, her husband, though a commoner of 
moderate pretensions, was forgiven the almost 
treasonable presumption of aspiring to the hand 
of a royal princess—a trespass upon the “divine 
right,’’ which few would be more ready to notice 
and resent, than the sapient son of Mary 
Stuart,” so recites her chronicler. 

Pocahontas (“Lady Rebecca”) could not 
fathom the cold and formal etiquette of cast at 
Court which robbed those who entered it of the 
warm ties of affection and friendship. Its heart¬ 
lessness was so unlike the royalty of her 
paternal realm, she would not be bound by them, 
although conforming admirably with ease to its 
grace of manner. Of her position in this permit 
her chroniclers to relate: 

“To the unsophisticated mind of the ‘Lady 
Rebecca,” these princely favors and courtly at¬ 
tentions made no amends for the seeming neglect 


PDCAHOi^'TAS 


19 


and coldness of Captain Smith, whom she re¬ 
garded with all the reverence and affection of 
an only child. His singular prowess, his won¬ 
derful exploits, his almost supernatural courage 
and power, had filled her young imagination, 
and inspired her with sentiment of admiration, 
awe, and love, due to a superior race of beings. 
With a love as free from passion as it was from 
selfishness, she had many times jeoparded her 
life for his. From his lips she had first heard 
tlie name of God, and the voice of prayer; and 
him, above all other men, she regarded as the 
beau ideal of greatness and goodness, whose 
presence and smiles v/ere of more worth to her 
tlian all the favors of the court, or the flatteries 
of the titled thousands that surrounded it. She 
longed to see him and embrace him as a father.’’ 
Hut, so jealous was the Phiglish monarch of the 
prerogatives of rank, and tlie etiquette of caste, 
that the^ hardy old soldier dared not salute the 
■“Lady Eehecca,” the daughter of King Powha¬ 
tan, except in that stately, reserved, and defer¬ 
ential manner, which was prescribed in the court 
rubrics. He bowed and touched her hand with 
cold and distant respect. He gave no expression 
by look or word, to the fond and grateful affec¬ 
tion with which he regarded her. She felt it 
<leeply. Tt went like steel, with an icy coldness, 
to her heart. Without uttering a word, she 


20 


POCAHONTAS 


turned her face, and wept. For several hours, 
she refused to speak, she seemed overwhelmed 
with disappointment, chagrin, and a sense of un¬ 
utterable desertion. At length, recovering from 
her dejection, she sought ‘'the great captain/' 
and gently reproached him for his cold recep¬ 
tion of his adopted child, who had long yearned 
to see and embrace him. “You did promise 
Powhatan," she said, “that what was yours 
should be his, and he made a like promise to you. 
You, being in his land a stranger, called him 
father, and by the same right, I will call you so." 

When it was objected that she was a king's 
daughter, and it would displease his king if he 
should fail to treat her with the high respect 
due to her rank, she replied: “Were you not 
afraid to come into my father's country, and 
cause fear in him and all his people but myself, 
and do you fear that I shall call you father here? 
I tell you that I will call you father, and you 
shall call me child, and so it shall be for ever." 

The ice thus broken never closed up again. 
She had frequent interviews with Smith, and 
never had cause to complain that he was less to 
her than a father; while he had infinite satisfac¬ 
tion in witnessing her daily improvement, and 
the unaffected ease, and grace, and dignity, with 
which she bore her part in the new sphere to 
which she had been so suddenly introduced. She 


POCAHONTAS 


21 


met and surpassed evei*y expectation. And the}^, 
who, before her arrival, had heard the fame of 
her beauty, her wit, her loveliness, and her 
virtue, were free to confess that ‘Hhe half had 
not been told them. 

After nearly one year thus feted, Rolfe with 
his royal bride prepared to return to America, 
but ‘'God disposes.’’ As she was preparing to 
embark, overtaxed, perhaps, hj fawning court 
etiquette, she became suddenly ill and died at 
Gravesend, England, where she was buried and 
where her ashes still sleep. That they should 
have been returned to her native land, with 
<ippropriate obsequies, is not less the obligation 
of all Americans than that of the immortal John 
Paul Jones, whose remains, after twenty years 
search were found in a back street of Paris, now 
sleep in the Crypt of the Naval Academy of the 
Pnited States. The one defended our commerce 
on the ^ea, the other succored and preserved 
from anniliilation, oui* fore-fathers on this con¬ 
tinent. 

Thus her personal destiny was fulfilled. 
Thereafter we must review her posterity, and 
learn liow they, under providence, have sus¬ 
tained the nobility and sympathy for human 
kind of the refined and gracious “Lady Re¬ 
becca. ’ ’ 

The young son, Thomas, was left with his 


22 


POCAHONTAS 


uncle, David Rolfe, in England while the be¬ 
reaved father returned to Virginia. Reared to 
manhood with the advantages of an education, 
he, too, returned, bringing a grant for land in 
his native Virginia from the English Crown. He 
was married with a Virginia girl by name, Jane 
Poythress, who bore him one child, a daughter, 
also named Jane. She married (1675) Colonel 
Robert Bolling, born 1646, died 1709. To this 
union one child was born (1676), a son, named 
John Bolling of Cobbs,” died 1729. He was 
elected to the lower house of Virginia Legisla¬ 
ture, called the House of Burgesses; while in the 
Legislature he met and married Mary Kennon, 
daughter of Dr. Kennon of ^^Conurer’s Neck,” 
also a member of the House. To this union was 
born five daughters and one son. Prom this 
time on her family in Virginia is known as the 
^‘Bolling family.” One of these girls married 
the ancestor of the celebrated John Randolph. 
One married a Clerk. Another (Anne), married 
James Murray of the Clan of Duke of Athol 
and Win. Murray, Lord Mansfield, England’s 
great jurist. This James Murray, was known 
as the ‘‘Old Duke,” who had four sons— 
William who migrated to Kentucky; John, who 
went into Mississippi, and Thomas and James 
Murray who migrated to Tennessee, about 
1789; and another married an ancester of Gen. 


POCAHONTAS 


23 


Benj. W. S. Cabell, of the United States Army, 
and father of the late Gen. William L. Cabell 
(^‘Old Tige’’), of Dallas, Texas, a noted Con¬ 
federate Commander, who was the brother of 
j\Iaj. Algernon S. Cabell, the father of Henry S. 
Cabell, of McAlester, Oklahoma, and Mrs. Poca¬ 
hontas Cornish, wife of the Hon. Melven Cor¬ 
nish, the celebrated lawyer of the same city. 

Windham Eobeson in his ‘‘Geneology of 
Pocahontas’’ is the Authority for the foregoing 
and it also gives her complete geneology down 
to the seventh generation where they grew very 
numerous, there being large families after the 
fourth generation, and beginning with that of 
John Bolling. Eobeson gives the ilames of all of 
them, when born, whom each married, what they 
did, when they died. One of the family married 
Thomas Jetferson’s sister. One of a collateral 
strain married his daughter. Woodrow Wil¬ 
son’s last wife was a Bolling, also of the ‘‘Poca¬ 
hontas Tree.” Some years ago the writer, with 
the assistance of the noted geneologist, Leonard 
Wilson, spent much time in further tracing a 
number of these descendent families from the 
‘ ‘ Seventh Generation ’ ’ to the present time; and 
found them in all the states of the South and 
West,—many in Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, 
Mississippi, Arkansas and Oklahoma. From 
Eobeson’s Geneology it may be sho\\m that to 


24 


POCAHONTAS 


the ‘‘Seventh Generation’’ thirty were elected 
to the House and twenty to the Senate of Vir¬ 
ginia ; four had served in Congress, two as Com¬ 
manders in the United States Army and one in 
the Navy; two had been celebrated bishops, et 
cetera. Subsequent generations since the 
“seventh” have kept up the record admirably 
in all these fields of learning and usefulness;— 
a remarkable family tree! 

In each to the fourth generations there was 
but one child, doubtless due to a natural law of 
inheritance in the cross of races. After the 
fourth there were uniformly very large families, 
and many lived to the age of around eighty 
years. 

No mental defectives are found among them 
and the only physical defect occurring is an oc¬ 
casional deaf-mute due to the marriage of rela¬ 
tives. 

In religion, approximately one-third were 
Roman Catholics, while the others were divided 
among sundry Protestant Churches, but no in¬ 
tolerance or bigotry ever arose among them. 
Perfect toleration of every one’s religion is a 
dominate trait of Indian character. Quite a 
contrast to his Anglo-Saxon brother who writes 
in his laws and political institutions the Charter 
of perfect toleration, but there is the only place 
you will find it. In his personal, political, and 


POCAHONTAS 


25 


social relations the Anglo-Saxon is quite other¬ 
wise^ with now and then a veritable furor of 
bigotry and intolerance, bordering on frenzy. 
This recalls the objection of Chief Joseph an 
Origan Indian Chief to schools in his tribe. He 
said he found that if they had schools they 
would teach his people to have churches and 
churches taught his people ‘Ho quarrel about 
God ’ ’ and that his people did not want to learn 
that. That about all churches and schools 
among them had done was to “make a quarrel 
between the Catholics and Protestants about 
God’’ and he thought that was wrong, and was 
he not right? The Indian is perfectly satisfied 
with his own religion and with that of his neigh¬ 
bor, if his neighbor is. He cannot believe any 
man who quarrels with another over the other’s 
religion is entirely satisfied with his own re-^ 
ligion, and it would seem that the logic of his 
position sustains his deductions; for why should 
folks quarrel about a theme too deep for the 
finite mind of any human to know all about or 
even much about? 

Windham Robeson closes his tables of “Gen- 
eology of Pocahontas” with this statement: “Of* 
all I ever knew of her numerous family, of all I 
ever heard or read of them, this may be truth¬ 
fully said of them: Some were indolent and 
shiftless, while many rose to the highest virtue 


26 


POCAHONTAS 


and genius, but there was never a criminal 
among them and there was never one im¬ 
prisoned. ’ ’ What a remarkable record! What 
a glorious Family Tree! Who is it that would 
not be proud of such a noble ancestry? And 
being a branch of that noble Family Tree, who 
is it that would not endeavor to sustain such 
high and noble record by like exemplary char¬ 
acter and conduct? 

While in England Pocahontas’ photograph 
was painted with her dressed in the style and 
costume of the Court of Queen Anne and James, 
the only picture ever made of her; and there are 
numerous certificates and atfidavits to the gen¬ 
uineness of the original, from which the one here 
presented was taken, on file in the Virginia His¬ 
torical Records. We may, therefore, with confi¬ 
dence assume that it accurately portrays her as 
she appeared in real life, since it also confirms 
the verbal and traditional description of her. 

I cannot command language to describe this 
Queen of her race so befittingly as the following 
which sums up her beautiful character, from the 
pen of Thos. L. McKinney: 

‘ ‘ The character of Pocahontas exhibts a won¬ 
derful symmetry and fulness of proportions, in 
which, from childhood to the mature woman, 
there is neither lack nor excess in a single trait. 
At twelve, she had the heroism, the endurance, 


POCAHONTAS 


27 


the Constance of a woman—at twenty-two, the 
modesty, the gentleness, the artless simplicity, 
the impulsive ingenuous earnestness, and the 
transparent truthfulness of a child/^ 



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GENERAL PUSHMATAHA 

‘‘General Pushmatata/’ as lie was called, bnt 
whose real name was A-push-ma-ta-ha-liu-bi, the 
first “A’’ being scarcely sounded, his white 
friends in writing* his name omitted the “A/’ 
while he himself dropped the ending “hubi^’ 
when a young man, while Gen. Andrew Jackson 
called him “Push,’^ was the greatest Indian 
that ever lived, and he was a full-blood, while 
Sequoyah, the Cherokee Genius, was half white,' 
his father being George Guist, a German. Gen. 
Pushmataha was at once and at the same time 
a great general, brave and intrepid; a renowned 
orator, wise in council, a sane law giver, a safe 
and sagacious leader, loyal in friendship and to 
his word with a remarkable intuitive conception 
of honor and morals, possessing a notable rug¬ 
ged honesty. It was, therefore, befitting that the 
largest county in Oklahoma, with its rugged 
mountains, should bear his name. While in the 
constitutional convention, the writer was pleased 
thus to do honor to the man who bought of the 
United States all the territory in Oklahoma 
south of the Canadian Elver, and he for many 


30 


PUSHMATAHA 


years has procrastinated in penning this tribute 
vvhich for the most part the writer believes he 
knows better than any other and that it should 
oe written also as a contribution to the Statens- 
history. 

General Pushmataha participated in the bat¬ 
tle of New Orleans and the engagement at 
‘‘Horse-Shoe Bend’’ with Sam Houston, under 
G eneral Jackson. It was from him that Jackson 
learned to use the expression 0. K. from 
“Push’s” frequent use of the Choctaw-Chicka- 
saw expression to end all statements si IlokHy 
meaning “that’s me” or “that’s what I said.’^ 
Hence General Jackson gave the two letters 
(0. K.) that most nearly represented the sound 
of the Indian word “HoKa,” in approving 
orders, and now in general use. He was born 
about 1764 but little is known of his birth or of 
him before his 20th year, at which date he was a 
captain, or war chief, and was a great hunter. 
It is certain that he at that age, made long jour- 
nies on hunting expeditions, sometimes crossing 
the Mississippi and going as far west as Texas 
and Oklahoma, on butfalo hunts. On one of 
these forays he was surprised by a wild tribe 
called the Callageheahs on Bed River near or 
within the Spanish territory, who killed all the 


PUSHMATAHA 


31 


men in liis command, he alone surviving and 
making his escape to a Spanish settlement where 
he arrived nearly starved; having while on the 
way given a pony found on the plains for one 
fish. He lived with the Spanish five years, em¬ 
ploying himself hunting when not brooding over 
plans of revenge. Wandering alone back to his 
home, east of the Mississippi, he came upon a 
little village of the Indians who had defeated 
him, and under cover of night by stealth rushed 
upon them, killing seven and setting fire to their 
lodges, which were entirely consumed, and made 
his escape, before the survivors recovered from 
their alarm. After remaining with the Choctaws 
six years, establishing his leadership among 
them, he commanded in quick succession, three 
or four expiditions to the enemy country on Red 
River of seven to eight months duration, and 
nearly exterminated the tribe of Callageheahs 
with little loss. This established his complete 
leadership among the Choctaws. From this 
time on he was known as a ^‘Choctaw Warrior.’’ 
However, there is much to sustain the state¬ 
ment that he was a Chickasaw by blood. That, 
he was with the Choctaws, was, in the writer’s 
opinion, due to the fact that the Chickasaws at 
that time were engaged in war with the French 


32 PUSHMATAHA 

and declined to take up his campaigns of re¬ 
venge, while the Choctaws were neutral. The 
Chickasaws never broke their alliance with the 
English. (Gen. Dale says: ‘'The Chickasaws, 
single handed, defied and defeated the science 
and power of the French of Louisiana, directed 
by officers trained in Europe,’^ (page 175). And 
he might have added they did this in three dis¬ 
tinct campaigns with a force three to one of 
theirs. They out-Napoleoned Napoleon's trained 
officers. J. H. Malone, in his “Chickasaw 
Nation,” produces the proof that the French 

(Foot Note 1.) Pushmataha led a war party of 800 
of his warriors against the Muskog'ees (Creeks) in our 
Creek war of 1811-13 and 500 in the “Campaign of Or¬ 
leans,” war in 1812 with Great Britain. Joe Kemp, a mixed 
Chickasaw-Choctaw-White blood, now an Ardmore po¬ 
liceman had for many years the Indian flag: used in that 
battle and carried by an ancestor, who was a corporal, 
and which he turned over to the Oklahoma Historical So¬ 
ciety. 

Reference to Chickasaw and Choctow treaties (Vol 7 
U. S. Statutes-at-Large) will disclose sections agreeing to 
pension the men of those tribes for services in the armies 
of the United States, one even promising to “pay those 
who followed General Wayne,”—the best evidence. It 
may also be safely stated that several companies of one 
or the other of these two tribes and often both performed 
services hereafter recited. Several companies joined 
Washington’s Armies and served to the end of the revolu¬ 
tion. 

Some of them were at the battle of Cowpens, under 
General Morgan; others, at the battle of Stony Point, under 


PUSHMATAHA 


38 


would have settled and controlled all our coun¬ 
try between the Alleganies and Rockies but for 
the Chickasaws alone, who never would jpermit 
the French to link their settlement at New 
Orleans with that on the lakes of the North.) 

Nor is the fact that Pushmataha lived after 
the age of twenty-five always with the Choctaws 
prima facie evidence that he was of their blood. 
Sergeant Otis W. Leader, who was decorated 
for distinguished service in the World War, and 
whose portrait was painted and hung in the 
French Capital by order of the French Republic, 
as the most worthy aboriginal American, was a 
Chickasaw who, together with Private Joseph 

General Wayne, and others, at the battle of Tilico Plains, 
under General Sullivan, sent by General Green to punish 
the Tories and northern Cherokees (the only Cherokees 
hostile to the Americans) for the destruction of Fort Lou¬ 
don, situated on the Tennessee river in the territories then 
of North Carolina, -whom he overtook at Tilico Plains, 
engaged and routed, with great loss on the part of the 
Tories and Cherokees, also securing the women and child¬ 
ren whom they had taken prisioners in the fall of Fort 
Loudon, and devastating the country of the hostile Chero¬ 
kees as he went, in driving them, (Tories and Cherokees) 
through Deep Creek Gap, in Cumberland mountains, into 
the now State of Kentucky; and there ending the pursuit, 
Sullivan returneid and joined his command near Yorktown. 
It is said, those Cherokees never did return to their former 
homes, but became incorporated with other Indians in 
Kentucky; others, were under Washington at the capturp 
of Yorktown, and witnessed the surrender of Cornwallis. 


34 


PUSHMATAHA 


Oklahombi, a full blood Cboctaw, performed tbe 
most daring strategy and exploits of heroism of 
all tbe'tbousands of Indians, if not of all those 
who did overseas service, White or Indian. For 
a recital of their military records see Foot-note 
Two. 

(Foot Note 2.) Otis W. Leader, a resident of Okla¬ 
homa, going to Fort Worth to buy cattle; there April 5, 
1917, when state of war was declared and some one gave 
out that he was a German Spy. Stung by the imputation, 
he applied to McAlester, Oklahoma, recruiting station on 
April 17, given two weeks to settle his business; reported 
to Oklahoma City, May 1, transferred to Ft. Logan Colo¬ 
rado, then to El Paso, Texas, Company H in famous 16th 
Infantry of regular army; set sail over seas June 1, 1917. 
Arrived at St. Nazaire, France, June 25, and with the first 
arrivals of our troops, glided through the locks and amid 
the cheers of the French on morning of June 26, did this 
raw recruited three-quarters Chickasaw Indian, amid this 
regiment of hardened veterans. Then followed hard train¬ 
ing at Gandrecourt soon to be followed, November 3, by 
the Bathlemont raid planned by the Germans, who hoped 
to over-awe the Americans spirit in the first blow. Here 
is the description given: 

“About three o’clock in the morning of November 3, 
1917, hell’s warfare suddenly broke loose; No Man’s Land 
and the Heavens were illuminated by a blinding flare, 
while ton upon ton of Krupp shells from Krupp artillery 
swept the American Sector, accompanied by the rattle of 
machine guns. The wily Hun had cut the wires, so that 
no call for relief could be sent to the American artillery. 
The heavy German shells ripped up the American trenches, 
while torpedoes tore away the wire barricade for the on¬ 
rush of the Germans, and some two hundred and fifty of 
the raiders, long drilled and trained for this very moment, 
rushed upon the Americans, and at last Americans were 
at grips with the Germans, and with the result that the 
world was soon to know that the Germans had met their 
destiny in the unconquerable freemen of America. When 


PUSHMATAHA 


35 


Read their records and ask yourself: How 
the devil, made of tire as he is, could even do it! 
To my mind, the only intelligent answer possible 
is either they were guided by the Hand of over¬ 
compelling Providence or else through reversion' 
of inheritance of that master strategy and dar-i 

daylight came, it was seen that a sergeant and ten of his 
men had been taken by the Germans, that five were 
wounded, and that Corporal James B. Greshman, Private 
Thomas Enright, and Merle D. Hay, all of Company F, 
were lying in the muddy trenches, cold in death, the first 
Americans to make the supreme sacrifice for America 
and the world. The Chickasaw lad. Leader, was then in 
the strife with one of two machine gun crews supporting 
the left flank of Company F, upon which the attack was 
made; and while this was a minor action, in so far as the 
casualties were concerned, still it stirred all America, and, 
it may be added, Europe as well.” 

“At the second battle of the Marne, Leader was a cor¬ 
poral in charge of one of the two machine gun crews, 
and while advancing in the face of the enemy, his entire 
gun crew and gun were blown off the face of the earth, 
he alone surviving. 

“Recovering from shell shock. Leader seized a rifle 
and advanced under the fire with the infantry, being lost 
three days from his company and while the infantry had 
the attention of the Germans, Leader crawled through an 
oatfield, down a small branch or ditch, and in this manner 
worked his way in behind the enemy and was within 
sixty feet of them before discovered; and having them 
covered with an automatic rifle, captured two machine- 
guns and eighteen prisioners. 

“This occurred on July 28th, 1918, the third day out, in 
the second battle, of the Marne, at the Aisne-Marne sector.” 

“The strategy of the young Chickasaw had worked like 
a charm.” 

Commenting further upon his action, James H. Malone 
of the Memphis Bar in his “Chickasaw Nation” says: 

“Who doubts that the courage, the genius for strategy, 


36 


PUSHMATAHA 


ing, long suppressed by the AVhite man, which^ 
was the marrow, nerve, and sinew of their an¬ 
cestors and well known to the AVhite man when 
he landed upon this continent and began upon 
them a system of consummate murder and of 
oppression, or they did it through both causes. 

and the inspiration which enabled this youn? Chickasaw to 
outwit and overcome the trained hardened Prussian Guards 
in the most colossal war in the annals of the world, was in¬ 
herited by him from his ancient progenitors, who came 
near destroying De Soto and his army in 1541.” 

Leader fought and was wounded and gassed at Can- 
tigny. May 23, 1918; fought at Soissons, Chateau-Thierry, 
July 18, 1918; fought in St. Mihiel Salient, September 12, 
1918; fought in the Argonne Forest, October 1, 1918, 
where he was again wounded and gassed; was cited for 
distinguished service, and was awarded the distinguished 
service cross. 

Malone again says: “It is also of interest to note that 
this young Chickasaw was selected by the French govern¬ 
ment as a model aboriginal American, and the French 
artist De Warreaux painted his portrait, which now graces 
the Art Museum in Paris, and that his portrait likewise 
hangs in the capital city of Oklahoma.” 

“Was it a strange fortune, or are we justified in be¬ 
lieving that destiny and an overruling Providence so 
ordered it, that of all the Indians in France, a Chickasaw 
Indian whose ancestors were the inveterate foes of the 
French, and rescued from their dominion that vast domain 
of our country east of the Mississippi, should be selected as 
one out of ten thousand ? 

“Whatever may be the conclusion of the casuist or 
philosopher with respect to this matter, I do not think we 
should be surprised to learn that at the first call of their 
country, every Chickasaw promptly answered that call, as 
Piomingo and his Chickasaws promptly answered the call 
of George Washington, and as their more remote ances¬ 
tors answered the call of Englishmen before the Revo¬ 
lutionary War; for fidelity was always one of the noble 


PUSHMATAHA 


37 


Leader is enrolled by the Indian Bureau as 
a Choctaw but the writer and many in this sec¬ 
tion know him personally from childhood and 
knew his parents to be Chickasaws. Like error 
may be found in the enrollment of Turner and 
John McLish who are twins, but the Bureau has 

traits of their character, and they were ever found side 
by side with English-speaking men, wherever they were 
called by the fortunes of war or peace.” 

Commissioner Sells, omitting his reference to some 
Western plains Indians and to Leader, says: 

“Among those who won the croix de guerre was volun¬ 
teer, Nicholas E. Brown, a full-blood Choctaw, who when 
killed was a corporal in the 142nd Infantry, composed 
largely of Oklahoma Indians, the honor being posthumously 
awarded; Marty Beaver, a full-blood Creek, on the mili¬ 
tary records as Bob Carr, an orphan boy who enlisted in 
Company F,. 142d Infantry, Thirty-Sixth Division, details 
at present lacking. 

“Alfred G. Bailey, a Cherokee of Oklahoma, had been 
in the regular service with General Pershing in Mexico. 
He was a sergeant when killed in action in France and 
was awarded the distinguished service cross for creeping 
into the enemy’s lines along far in advance of his regiment, 
where, unaided, he killed two. German machine gunners 
and captured a third with his gun. 

“Probably no more brilliant instance is recorded than 
that furnished by Private Joseph Oklahombi, a full-blood 
Choctaw, of Company D, 141st Infantry, whose home is 
at Bismark, Oklahoma, and who received the croix de 
guerre under the order of Marshall Petain, commander- 
in-chief of the French armies of the East. A translation 
of the order follows: 

“ ‘Under a violent barrage, dashed to the attack of an 
enemy position, covering about 210 yards through barbed- 
wire entanglements. He rushed on machine gun nests, 
capturing 171 prisioners. He stormed a strongly held 
position containing more than fifty guns, and a number of 
trench mortars. Turned the captured guns on the enemy. 


38 


PUSHMATAHA 


Turner (now a deputy court clerk of Ardmore) 
a Chickasaw and John a Choctaw. It is aside 
our purpose to go into the records to prove that 
Pushmataha was a Chickasaw by blood, yet it 
mav be recited that he never had a relative 
living among the Choctaws; that he fought many 
battles with United States troops; was a Gen¬ 
eral in our army and fought in open field of 
battle from the very beginning, and Thomas Jef¬ 
ferson states in his “Notes on Virginia,” I be¬ 
lieve it is, that the Chickasaws always fought in 
open field of battle and that they were the only 
Indians in that early date that did so. More¬ 
over he never would speak of his origin, doubt¬ 
less, fearing it would arouse tribal jealously 
among his command. He always told them a 
remarkable story as though he never was born 
of woman but came into the world by some 
Divine Mystery to become the leader of the 
Choctaws. He never claimed to be a Choctaw 

and held the position for four days, in spite of a constant 

barrage of large projectiles and of gas shells. Crossed No 
Man’s land many times to get information concerning the 
enemy, and to assist his wounded comrades.’ ” 

“Such deed of highest service to unborn generations are 
part of the glorious conclusion wrought by American arms 
and will out-live all memorial bronze and marble, for they 
will inspire the song and story of immortal tradition, and 
though Recorded History may fail, these things that have 
been written into the psychology of human freedom and 
justice will endure.” (Com. Indian Affairs, Cato Sell’s 
Report, 1919, pp 17-18.) 


PUSHMATAHA 


39 


but lias on occasions stated positively that his 
mother was not, however, declining to identity 
her. On one ocassion while a delegate to Wash¬ 
ington City, some prominent White men sought 
to get him to talk of his ancestors. He en¬ 
deavored to avoid it, till pressed for a reply, he 
drew himself up in military dignity and gave 
a reply equal to Napoleon’s, ‘‘My ancestors be¬ 
gan at Montonot.” 

The incident is thus told: The official asked 
Pushmataha, through an interpreter, how he 
became such a great Chief and Warrior, to 
which he coolly replied: >“Tell the White Chief 
it’s none of his business.” With half apology 
he submitted the question again sa}dng he was 
interested in knowing. Again he replied: “If 
the White Chief must know, I am Apushmataha, 
who has neither father nor mother nor kinsman 
upon this earth. Tell him that once upon a 
time, far away from here in the great forest of 
the Choctaw Nation, a dark cloud arose from 
the western horizon and with astonishing veloc¬ 
ity, traveled up the arched expanse; across its 
dark face the bright lightning played in inces¬ 
sant flashes, while the rolling thunder rever¬ 
berated in muffied tones from hill to hill, amid 
the vast solitudes of the surrounding forests. 
Swiftly and majestically it climbed the western 
sky, while the lightning flashed, followed by the 


40 


PUSHMATAHA 


thunder roar in successive peal after peal. In 
silence profound, all animate nature stood 
apart; soon the fearful cloud reached the zenith, 
then as quickly spread its dark mantle o’er the 
sky entire, shutting out the light of the sun, and 
wrapping earth in midnight gloom, lighted only 
in lucid intervals by the lightning’s fitful glare, 
followed by peals of thunder in deafening roar. 
Then burst the cloud and rose the wind; and 
while falling rains and howling winds, lightning 
gleam and thunders roar, in wild confusion 
blended, a blinding flash blazed athwart the sky 
as if to view the scene, then hurled its strength 
against a mighty oak—an ancient monarch of 
the woods that for ages had defied the storm 
with his boasted power—and cleft it in equal 
twain from utmost top to lowest bottom; when, 
lo! from its riven trunk leaped a mighty man; in 
stature, perfect; in wisdom, profound; in brav¬ 
ery, unequalled; a full-fledged warrior. ’Twas 
Apushmatahahubi. ” 

When the writer removed to the Indian 
county (the Five Civilized Tribes) nearly thirty 
years ago, he met many full-blood Chickasaws 
and Choctaws who had no doubt of that’s being 
Apushmataha’s origin; and all of them believed 
him infallible as he seemed to be^hnancible. His 
very name (A-push-ma-ta-ha-hu-bi^ indeed in 
their tongue means, ‘Hlis arm, and all Aveapons 


PUSHMATAHA 


41 


in Ills hand, are fatal to his foes. ’ ’ In all history 
there is but one instance of faith in a Military 
Chieftain so strong as that held for him by those 
■old Indians—that of the Legions of France for 
the “Little Corporal.” 

On another occasion in reply to a question 
of his followers, “Where is your father and 
mother?” He answered: “I have no father or 
mother,—I came from the heart of an oak.” 
Those acquainted with Indian character know 
how strong their love of their tribal blood and 
dislike for a leader from a rival tribe and thus 
Push shielded himself from this prejudice and 
maintained the supremacy of his leadership, yet 
indirectly denying that by blood he was a Choc* 

/ Between 1814 and ’20 he spent three years ex¬ 
ploring Oklahoma, going as far west as the heads 
[of the Washita and Canadian Rivers, which lat¬ 
ter rises in Colorado. He thereafter sought to 
purchase the country between the Canadian and 
Red Rivers. As a representative of the Choc¬ 
taws, he met Commissioners—Generals Jack- 
son and Hinds—on the part of the United States 
to effect a trade of a portion of their land in 
Mississippi for laud west. 

After much parley in which the United 
States Commission evinced much anxiety to 
make the trade of this supposed “western des- 


42 


PUSHMATAHA 


serf’ to the Indians, by which General Push¬ 
mataha was enabled to secure all the terms he 
desired. 

^ Jackson proposed the territory bounded 
thus: Beginning at a point on Eed Eiver three 
miles below the mouth of Little Elver, thence 
north to the Canadian Eiver, thence up said 
river to its source, thence south to Eed Eiver, 
thence down that river to place of beginning. 
Whereupon, according to the report of Generals 
Jackson and Hinds, Pushmataha arose and 
spoke as follows: ‘fYhen a trade is to be made 
between two men, one may be a fool and the 
other as great as General Jackson, but the re¬ 
sult, in honor and good morals, will be the same 
for the strong must protect the weak; but I per¬ 
ceive this trade is not to be made under such 
honorable rules.” (Just imagine such a high 
conception of equity between civilized White 
> men, that the ‘‘strong man will protect the 
' weak. ”) Then Pushmataha continued, ‘ ‘ I say to 
General Jackson further lying to us is unneces¬ 
sary in his attempt to sell us undisputed Mexi- 
, can Territory.” (Eemember this treaty was 
dated October 18,1820—U. S. Statutes-at-Large, 
Volume 7, fifteen years before Texas Eevolu- 
i tion.) 

, Jackson responded that such statement was 
too harsh and if repeated he would quit the con- 


PUSHMATAHA 


43 


ferencG; showing Pushmataha the map. The lat¬ 
ter then stated he would “acquit General Jack- 
son of any intentional wrong but that the paper 
(meaning the map) lies. ’ ’ ‘ ‘ For, ’ ’ said he : “ I 
spent three years in that country. I chased the 
Comanche Indian and he sometime chased me,” 
and pointed out the boundary between the 
United States and Mexico. Jackson refused to 
agree to it, but in later treaty the United States 
had to modify the terms to read for the Choc¬ 
taws to go as “far west as the United States 
])ossession extended,” which was the 100th 
iVieridian, or the Panhandle of Texas. They 
later were tricked out of the country west of the 
98th Meridian. (Foot-note 3.) 

Description being agreed upon, Pushmataha 
asked; “Mdiat will become of the White people 
out there”? Jackson replied that that idea is 
moonshine but if they were, “By the Eternals, 
Ull drive them into the Mississippi.” AUhere- 

(Foot Note 3.) In 1866, the Indians leased this domain 
(two degrees wide from 98 to*100 meridian west) to the 
United States. About ’88 they brought suit and recovered 
it in the Court of Claims, but the Government coerced the 
Indians in the Atoka Agreement of 1897 to permit an ap¬ 
peal to the Supi:eme Court., That court found the word 
“Cede,” Conveyed the title, although admitting the In¬ 
dians only intended a lease and that the Indians had not 
been paid for it; but held that compensation is a duty of 
Congress, but Congress has not performed that duty to the 
Choctaws and Chickasaws to this day, and when will it? 


44 


PUSHMATAHA 


upon Push replied: ‘‘But, General, many are 
rich and have much property and would it not be 
a little difficult to remove them?” Showing an 
accurate hut intuitive conception of the rights 
of property and invested interest that the power 
of the Government could not take, easily. The 
old chief then said to Jackson, “We want the 
.Pnited States Government to select fifty-four 
square miles out of our best lands east of the 
Mississippi, sell them and invest and reinvest 
the proceeds so that the interest therefrom shall 
be a permanent school fund for the education of 
“Choctaw youths.” This was too apparent to 
be denied and this was the first suggestion for 
the general education of the Indian at public 
expense as far as my research has enabled me to 
learn, and it came from a full-blood Indian. The 
earlier foundation of Uonmouth College and 
the missionary schools might be recited as ex¬ 
amples of white men’s effort to educate the 

It was stated at the time of the decision that the Judg'e 
who gave the opinion stated privately that the ruling was 
because the Indians joined the Confederacy. However, they 
were left alone by the United States and had they not 
joined the South it meant annihilation to them;—an act 
of pure self-defense and self-preservation. Abandonded by 
:the Union and threatened by the Confederacy, armed all 
about them, they had in prudence, but one choice—when 
will Congress take, in this matter, the same high plain to 
‘‘keep the word of our forefathers,” that General Push¬ 
mataha followed in his debate with Tecumseh. (See 
Appendix.) 


PLTSHMATAHA 


45 


Tndiaiij but they were limited and for the special 
purpose of Christianizing the Indian and do not 
reach the scale of a general system of education 
at public expense as proposed by this sage of the 
forest, and at whose instance it was later put 
into operation. (DorWiouth College was created 
through donors to educate promising but poor 
Indian boys. The fund for such purpose is still 
conserved for such Indian claimants. Daniel 
Webster was educated from this fund. No, you 
never heard before he had Indian blood. See 
“Prom^he Deep Wood to Civilization,” by 
Dr. Patoan.) 

The Serins of the treaty having been com- 
))leted the old chief sought to felicitate his as¬ 
sociates by making a speech, in which, among 
other things, he said: ‘ ‘ We boast that the Choc- 
i taws have never taken up arms ’ against the 
United States {the only exception to this was in 
later joining the Confederacy). But we have 
accomplished more in this treaty l)y diplomacy 
than we could have done by war, had we chosen 
thatmethod and been entirely victorious; for we 
have acquired from the United States here her 
d)est remaining territory west of the Mississippi; 
and this treaty provides a perpetual fund for 
the education of our children, and I predict 
that its l)enefits will in a few generations enable 
the Choctaws to hght in tlie White man’s wars 


46 


PUSHMATAHA 


and hold office in the White man’s government. 
—^‘In the wars of the Nations of the earth, 
Apnshmataha has this day declared it and his 
words of prophecy are not uttered foolishly.” 

In my opinion the acts, suggestions, and 
statements of Pushmataha in making that treaty 
were those of a very wise man, be he white or 
red, and contained much of that rare quality 
called ^‘Statesmanship.” Prophetic wisdom 
marked every clause, although it required much 
persuasion on his part to secure the assent of 
his own associates to all his purposes. 

Nor need we rely for evidence of his great¬ 
ness alone upon his isolated achievements. We 
have the direct testimony of contemporaneous 
White men of superior scolarship and learning. 
The Alahama historical records say he “was 
not only a great Indian but one of the great men 
of his time.” 

In his “History of the Life and Times of 
Gen. Sam Hale” by J. P. II. Claiborne, (Gen. 
Hale, “Big Sam Hale” removed the first Choc¬ 
taws west to the Oklahoma home, he and Col. 
George S. Gaines being commissioned to do so 
in 1831 by the Secretary of War and removal 
began in the following year. Gen. Hale pays a 
very touching and pathetic tribute to the Clioc- 
taw’s love of home, which is true of all the Five 
. Civilized Tribes. He says that^as they moved 


PUSHMATAHA 


47 


westward, men, women, and children on foot, 
and necessarily slow, those old Indians would 
steal out of camp every night to take ‘ ‘ one more 
look^’ at their old cabins and the graves of their 
ancestors—‘‘the ashes of the dead’^—and that 
thej^ continued thus till their camp was more 
than forty miles away.) Claiborne was an his¬ 
torian of much note and at one time a member 
of congress, during those stirring times, whose 
own i)ersonal experience, together with that of 
his noted relative, Brig.-Gen. F. L. Claiborne in 
the Creek War of 1813-14, entitle him to first 
hand information. He gives such information 
of this Indian hero. 

Claiborne gives in detail the conception of 
the Shawnee Chief, Tecumseh, to organize all 
the Indian tribes of the west into one grand con¬ 
federation to exterminate the white settlers, 
Cushman, born among the Choctaws, whos(^ 
father;settled among theih in 1820 and residing 
among them for u})wards of eighty years, 
dying but fifteen or twenty years ago, tell^ 
us Tecumseh came among the Choctaws to 
persuade them to join his confederation, 
but through the eloquent appeal and leader¬ 
ship of Pushmataha, the Choctaws remained 
steadfast in the cause of the United States; 
that Apushmataha then living in present County 
of Washington, Alabama, knowing the Choc- 


48 


PUSHMATAHA 


taws were for action on one side or the other and 
could not remain neutral, otfered his cammand 
to the United States Indian Agent, Geo. S. 
Gaines, who took him to Mobile to inform Gen¬ 
eral Plournay, who in effect told him to ‘Umii. 
along and hunt rabbits^’ but reporting to Wash¬ 
ington, Push’s statement of the ‘‘danger of ex¬ 
termination of all the frontier settlers,” a cou¬ 
rier was dispatched by General Flournay by or¬ 
der of the War Department to find Pushmataha 
quickly and to accept his services in the name of 
the United States upon his own terms, which ad¬ 
hesion, together with the known steadfast Chick- 
asaws,. only made it possible to check-mate the 
wily Shawnee and save the settlers. Tecumseh, 
having by some means, learned of the coming of 
a comet foretold it in his appeal to the Indians 
saying: “Asa sign soon you shall see my arm 
of hre stretched athwart the sky.” 

Gen. Dale, then a scout, in describing the 
visit of Tecumseh to the Creeks says: “In 
October 1811, the Annual Grand Council of the 
Creeks assembled at Took-a-batcha on the Tall¬ 
apoosa River. The U. S. Agent, Colonel Haw¬ 
kins, attended and I accompanied him. A flying- 
rumor had circulated that some Xorthern In¬ 
dians would be present. This brought some 5000 
people including Cherokees and Choctaws. The 
day following, the Council met, Tecumseh with 


PUSHMATAHA 


49 


a suit of twenty-four warriors marched into the 
Center Square, dressed in tanned buckskin, fit¬ 
ting closely, exhibiting their muscular develop¬ 
ment, among them the famous Jim BluejacketJ’ 
After the Agent left, Gen. Dale arranged with 
a ‘‘Bill Milford’^ a “handsome half-blood 
friend^’ to notify him when Tecumseh spoke. 
Evidently the English and Spanish had in¬ 
formed him of the coming of a comet and the 
earthquake of that year in Kentucky for after an 
appeal that only an Indian chief could make to a 
kindred blood, he closed in these words: “Te¬ 
cumseh will soon return to his country. My 
j)rophet shall tarry with you. When the White 
man approach you, the yawning earth shall 
swallow them up. Soon shall you see my arm 
of fire stretched athwart the sky. I will stamp 
rny foot at Tippecanoe, and the very earth shall 
shake.’’ (The importance of our winning this 
battle w^as so great that it made William Henry 
Harrison, president.) Like a consummate orator, 
Tecumseh refers to these and when the comet 
came, the Indians attributed to him, super- 
natui*al powers and immediately took up arms. 
Pushmataha, when Tecumseh met the Choctaws, 
says (hishman, had to meet this blaze of frenzy 
with consummate leadership and match it with 
superior oratory and wisdom and he was suc¬ 
cessful. Push replied to this appeal ascribing 


50 


PUSHMATAHA 


the comet as but a visitation of nature that fore¬ 
told nothing else but the movement of the 
heavenly bodies, often seen before, that were be¬ 
yond the comprehension either of Tecumseh or 
himself and that only the superstitious would 
consider it other than a mere manifestation of 
nature. (See Appendix.) Gen. Dale heard this 
appeal of Push tb his followers. Of it he says: 
‘ ‘ I have heard all the orators of this Republic— 
Indian and White—but Apushmataha is the 
greatest orator I ever heard. His voice was so 
rhythmical the Indians called it ‘ water-falP. ” 
‘‘Apushmataha would have adorned the 
United States Senate, and had he been a member 
of the Senate where his sayings could have been 
preserved, posterity would look upon him as we 
look upon the Greek Statesmen.’^ 

In an essay by Claiborne, the Historian, on 
the Indian wars of 1811-13, printed in the “New 
()rleans Delta ” on Augiisf 19^, 1849, the closing 
paragraph contains this statement concerning 
Pushmataha—“A man of noblest atlributes, 
who had it in his power to depopulate onr ter¬ 
ritories but whose arm was always exteiuied for 
the protection of the White settlers.’^ This 
meant Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, as well as 
Kentucky and North River Ohio Country. The 
Chickasaws would have saved Tennessee. 

Many amusing anecdotes have been chron- 


PUSHMATAHA 


51 


icled al)out him, and they do more than word- 
painting to give a true knowledge of a man’s 
character. These are the best known: 

After the fall of Ft. Mims, Gen. F. L. Clai¬ 
borne, then at Ft. Stoddard, dispatched Major 
Ballinger to induce Gen. Pushmataha, then the 
most celebrated war-chief of the Choctaws to 
visit his camp . When the chief approached the 
general’s tent, he was received by the Lieutenant 
on guard who invited Push to drink. He an¬ 
swered only by a look of scorn. He recognized 
no officer vnth one epaulet. Later when General 
Claiborne came in, the Red warrior shook his 
hand and said proudly, as to an equal: ‘ ‘ Chief, 
[ will drink with you.” Gen. Sam Dale says of 
him after this enlistment: ^‘Pushmataha on 
this occasion appeared with great pomp. Gen¬ 
eral Claiborne had presented him with a splen¬ 
did suit of regimentals, gold epaulets, sword, 
silver,spurs, and hat and feather ordered from 
^lobile at a cost of $300.00. He was a man of 
imposing mien, perfectly self-possessed, entirely 
at home in the general’s tent, fearless as a lion 
in the hour of danger; in single combat he had 
no superior, and he ruled the Choctaws by the 
thunder of his eloquence. ’ ’ 

Claiborne describes him thus: “He was six 
feet two inches high, robust, and of Herculean 
strength. His form and features were after the 


52 


PUSHMATAHA 


finest models of antique; Ms deportment com¬ 
posed, dignified, and seductive. He was some¬ 
times called ‘Panther’s Claw’ and the ‘Water¬ 
fall’ in allusion to his exploits in battle and to 
the sonorous and musical intonations of his 
voice.” 

Another characteristic anecdote is related of 
him. A feud existed between him and a Minco 
(Choctaw word for Chief) of the Yazoo district^ 
and it was understood that their knives would 
decide it when they met. At the head of a num¬ 
erous party his rival was seen approaching, 
evidently agitated, and irresolutely grasping a 
tomahawk. Push leaped forward like a tiger, his 
knife gleaming above his head, but suddenly 
paused, and with a scornful smile exclaimed: 
“Leaf of the Yazoo! Why dost thou tremble! 
The wind don’t blow. Go Squaw, go 1 ” 

Some time before our war of 1812, with Great 
Britain, a party of Creek Indians came to the 
Choctaw Country and burned the home of Push¬ 
mataha, who was in the neighborhood playing 
Indian Ball, a game of which he was fond and 
at which he was very expert. War of retaliation 
was kindled which was continued till the break¬ 
ing out of the war between United States and 
Great Britain and until it was ended. While 
that war lasted, according to its records, he was 
always the first to lead his troops against the 


PXTSHMATAHA 


53 


Britisli or their Indian allies, especially against 
the Creeks and Seminoles. While in the Se¬ 
quoyah Constitutional Convention at Muskogee 
in 1905, the writer had several conversations 
touching this period with General Plesant Por¬ 
ter, the last chief of the Creeks, himself a mag¬ 
nificent man; he said: ‘‘Pushmataha whipped 
us Creeks into a frazzle.’^ 

Apushmataha, in unison with the Ancient 
custom of the Choctaws, had two wives. Being 
asked if he did not consider it wrong for a man 
to have more than one living wife, he replied: 
'‘ ‘ Certainly not. Should not every woman he al¬ 
lowed the privilege of having a husband, as well 
as a man a wife? And how can every one have a 
husband when there are more women than men ? 
Our Great Father had the Choctaws counted last 
year, and it was ascertained that there were 
more women than men, and if a man was ah 
lowed hut one wife many of our women would 
have no husband. Surely, the women should 
have equal chances with the men in that particm 
lar. ” 

During the Creek war of 1814, in which 
Apushmataha was engaged with eight hundred 
of his warriors as allies of the United States, 
as before stated, a small company of Choctaw 
women, among whom was the wife of Apushma¬ 
taha, visited their husbands and friends then in 


54 


PUSHMATAHA 


the American army in the Creek Nation. A 
white soldier, grossly insulted the wife of the 
distinguished Choctaw Chief, for which the 
justly indignant chief knocked him down with 
the hilt of his sword, instead of plunging it 
through his body, as he should have done. Be¬ 
ing arrested for the just and meritorious act,, 
and asked by the commanding general the rea¬ 
son for his act, he fearlessly answered: ‘‘He 
insulted my wife, and I knocked the insolent dog 
down; but had you. General, have insulted her as 
that common soldier did, I would have used the 
point upon you instead of the hilt, in resenting 
an insult offered to my wife.’^ 

If all the things Apushmataha did and said 
had been preserved, we should no doubt have 
had enough material to last the romance writers 
for a quarter of a century and then some to 
spare for the movie films. 

Another incident is related by the Indian 
Bureau of the period. When a guard of eight 
or ten were kept at the Choctaw Agency, one of 
the soldiers having become intoxicated, was or¬ 
dered to be confined. There being no guard¬ 
house, the temporary restraint was effected by 
tying the offending soldier. Seeing the soldier 
thus situated, Apushmataha inquired the cause, 
and on being told, exclaimed, “Is that alP’? and 
immediately untied the unfortunate soldier, re- 


PX^SHMATAHA 


55 


marking coolly: ‘‘Many good warriors get 
drunk.’’ His own faults were drinking, and 
gambling on horse races and Indian ball games. 

According to Thomas L. McKinney, Chief 
of the Indian Bureau before the Civil War, and 
Indian Military service for more than twenty- 
five years, the Chief was in Washington City 
in 1824 on business for the Choctaws. “The 
venerable Lafayette, then upon his memorable 
and triumphal tour through the United States, 
was at the same metropolis, and the Choctaw 
Chiefs came to pay him their respects. Several 
of them made speeches, and among the rest, 
Pushmataha addressed him in these words: 
“‘Nearly fifty snows have melted since you drew 
the sword as a companion of Washington. With 
him you fought the enemies of America. You 
mingled your blood with that of the enemy, and 
proved yourself a warrior. After you finished 
that war, you returned to your own country; 
and now you are come back to visit a land, where 
you are honored by a numerous and powerful 
people. You see every where the children of 
those by whose side you went to battle, crowding 
around you, and shaking your hand, as the hand 
of a father. We have heaixLthese things told 
in our distant villages, and our hearts longed 
to see you. We have come, we have taken you 
})y the hand, and are satisfied. This is tlu‘ first 


56 


PUSHMATAHA 


time we have seen you; it will probably be the 
last. We have no more to say. The earth willi 
part us forever.’’ 

The old warrior pronounced these words, 
v/ith affected solemnity of voice and manner. He- 
seemed to feel a presentiment of the brevity of 
his own life. The concluding remark of his- 
Speech was prophetic. In a few days, he was no 
more. He was taken ill at Washington, and died 
in a strange land. When he found that his end 
was approaching, he called his companions 
around him, and desired them to raise him up, 
to bring his arms, and to decorate him with all 
his ornaments, that his death might be that of 
a man. In conversation with his Indian friends,, 
shortly before his death, he said, shall die, 
but you will return to our brethren. As you go 
along the paths, you will see the flowers and 
hear the birds sing, but Pushmataha will see 
them and hear them no more. When you shall 
come to your home, they will ask you, where is 
Apushmatahal and you will say to them, he is 
no more. They will hear the tidings like the 
.sound of the fall of a mighty oak in the stillness 
of the woods.” 

Thomas L. McKinney, then in the Indian 
Bureau, says, '‘The only speech made by Push¬ 
mataha, on the occasion of his visit to Washing¬ 
ton, was the following. It was intended by him 


PUSHMATAHA 


57 


; to be an opening address, which, had he lived, he 
, would doubtless have followed by another more, 
like himself. AVe took it down as he spoke it* 
The person addressed was the Secretary of 
War. ‘Father —I have been here some time. I 
have not talked—have been sick. You shall hear 
me talk today. I belong to another district. You 
have no doubt heard of me—I am ApusJimataha., 
‘ Fat he hen in my own country, I often 

looked towards this Council House, and wanted 
to come here. I am in trouble. I will tell my 
distresses. I feel like a small child, not half so 
high as its father, who comes up to look in his 
father’s face, hanging in the bend of his arm to 
tell him his troubles. So, Father, I hang in the 
bend of your arm, and look in your face, and 
now hear me speak: ‘Father —AYhen I was in my 
own country, heard there were men appointed 
to talk to us. I would not speak there; I 
chose to come here, and speak in this beloved 
house. I can boast, and say, and tell the truth, 
that none of my fathers, or grandfathers, nor 
any ChoctaAv ever drew bows against the United 
States. They have always been friendly. AVe 
have held the hands of the United States so long, 
that our nails are long like birds’ claws; and 
there is no danger of their slipping out. ‘Father 
—1 have come to speak. Aly nation has always 
^ listened to the applications of the AYhite people. 


58 


PUSHMATAHA 


They have given of their country till it is very 
small. I repeat the same about the land east of 
the Tornbigby. I came here when a young man 
to see my Father, Jefferson. He told me if ever 
we got in trouble, we must run and tell him. I am 
come. This is a friendly talk; it is like a man 
who meets another, and says, how do you dof 
Another will talk further ^ ^ 

The celebrated John Bandolph, in a speech 
upon the floor of the Senate, alluded thus to 
the forest chieftain, whose brief memoirs we 
have attempted to sketch: ^^Sir, in a late visit 
to the public graveyard, my attention was ar¬ 
rested by the simple monument of the Choctaw 
Chief Pushmataha. He was,. I have been told 
by those who knew him, one of nature ^s nobility; 
a man who would have adorned any society. He 
lies quietly by the side of our statesmen and 
high magistrates in the region^—for there is one 
such, where the Bed man and the White man are 
on a level. On the sides of the plain shaft that 
niarks his place of burial, I read these words: 
'Pushmataha^ a Choctaw Chief, lies here. This 
monument to his memory is erected hy his 
Brother Chiefs, who were associated with him in 
a delegation from their Nation, in the year 1824, 
to the Government of the United States. Push¬ 
mataha was a warrior of great distinction. He 
was wise m council, eloquent in an extraordinary 


PUSHMATAHA 


59 , 


degree; and on all occasions, and under all cir¬ 
cumstances, the White mands friend. He died, 
in Washington, on the 24:th day of December, 
1824, 0 / the croup, in the 60th year of his age\^’ 
Among his last words were the following: 
‘‘When I am gone, let the big guns he tired over 
:me.” 1 

“This chief had five children. His oldest: 
son died at the age of twenty-one, after having! 
completed an excellent P]nglish education. The 
others were young at the time of the' decease of 
their father. A medal has, been sent by thei 
fVesident to the oldest surviving son, as a testis 
mony of respect for the memory of a warrior,; 
whose attachment to our government was 
steady and unshaken, throughout his life.’2 1 

It does not appear> that hu ever; attended;; 
school, yet he was as wise as the scholars bf higj 
age. ^ 

To Oklahomans it must seem a strange in¬ 
cident that his successor as chief fell to his 
nephew, (on his wife’s side) byname Oklahoma. 

Gen. Andrew Jackson, then Senator from 
Tennessee, stood by his sick bed and inquired: 
“Warrior, what can I do for you?” His reply— 
his last words, were: “When I am gone let the 
Big Guns be fired over me.” An order was 
executed to give him burial with full honors due 
a general of the American Army. 


60 


PUSHMATAHA 


The ceremonies of the funeral were very im¬ 
posing of martial pomp and pageantry tit for a 
prince of the Purple, and creditable to a great 
Republic, though too often ungrateful, paying 
her last respects to a faithful chieftain. Accord¬ 
ing to official chronicles, these were: ‘‘Besides 
the discharge of minute guns on the Capital Hill, 
and from the ground contiguous to the place of 
interment, there was an immense concourse of 
citizens, a long train of carriages, cavalry, mili¬ 
tary, bands of music, the whole procession ex¬ 
tending at least a mile in length; and there were 
thousands lining the ways, and tilling the doors 
and windows, and then the military honors at 
the grave.’’ All this in honor of A-Push-ma- 
ta-ha, the greatest of Indians, and one of the 
great men of his time, whose noble deeds have 
been forgotten since, in the lapse of ninety-nine 
years. 


APPENDIX 

FOREST FORUM DEBATE 
BETWEEN 

TECUMSEH AND PUSHMATAHA 

Colonel John Pitchlynn, a white man of 
strict integrity, well educated and a great lin¬ 
guist, and therefore having a very retentive 
memory for verbatim statements, who for many 
years was the U. S. Official interpreter to the 
Choctaws, states he heard the speech of Tecum - 
sell to the Choctaws and Pushmataha ^s reply, 
and it is to him we are indebted for a verbatini 
report and preservation of both speeches. He 
described the vivid scene to which he was an eye 
witness, preceding this, the most noted debate 
between the giants, as they were, of all the North 
American Indians. Runners were sent out to 
secure the attendance of every Choctaw warrior 
and as many Chickasaws as possible, for a great 
(juestion was to be discussed affecting all North 
American Indians by the great Ambassador* 
from the Shawnees who desired to meet them in 
council. The place selected was a point on Tom- 
bigbee River, some five miles North of Column 
bus, ^Mississippi, now known as Plymouth. Col. 


62 


APPENDIX 


Pitchlynn states that the number attending ran 
into thousands. After night fall a signal, that 
of setting on tire a great pile of logs and chuncks 
previously collected, for the multitude to as¬ 
semble. Rings encircling the blazing heap ex¬ 
tending outward till all were seated on the 
ground in winding circles around this ‘‘forest 
forum. ^ ’ Tecumseh emerged from the darkness, 
marched to the center, followed by his retinue of 
thirty warriors, who formed a crescent about 
their Chief. He stood eyeing the multitude and 
measuring the task before him, that of putting 
them on the war-path to destroy all frontier 
settlements. Every eye upon him, he “in a 
grave and solemn manner, ’ ^ says Colonel Pitch¬ 
lynn, began: 

“In view of questions of vast importance 
have we met together in solemn council,’^ and 
then turned loose a torrent of invective against 
the wrongs by the White man, equal to Cicero ^s 
arraignment of Cataline; followed by an elo¬ 
quent peroration and shouted: “Where today 
is the Pequods? Where the Naragansetts, the 
Mohawks? Where the Pocanokets? Their fate 
is your portion, if you heed not. Sleep not 
longer, 0! Choctaws and Chickasaws! till the 
pale-face kick and strick you as they do their 
black-faced slaves! ’ ^ Thus he continued in a 
lengthy discourse pyramiding his passionate 


APPENDIX 


63 


eloquence and perorations, closing with confi¬ 
dent success. A few of the Choctaw Chiefs fol¬ 
lowed, some supporting the Shawnee, others 
not certain, some desiring to consider but not 
inveigling against the eloquent appeal of the 
mighty Shawnee. Another who, till that 
moment, when a unanimous vote for Tecumseh 
seemed certain, had uttered not a word. ^‘As 
he drew himself to full height,^’ says Col. Pitch- 
lynn, ‘Hhere was revealed the symmetrical form 
and most renowned—a man of great dignity, 
unjdelding firmness, undisputed bravery and 
varacity, sound judgment, and firm friend of the 
American people—Pushmataha;” all eyes 
turned to him, their guide, philosopher, and 
friend. Standing in eloquent silence, as only 
can an Indian, surveying his followers, he be¬ 
gan that which may be turmed Pushmataha^s 
Great Speech : 

^^0-mish-ke! A numpa tiollofasih ish hak- 
loh:” (Attention! Listen, you, to my brief re¬ 
marks:) 

Again pausing for more certain concentra¬ 
tion, he continued as follows as reproduced by 
Col. John Pitchlynn at the time: 

‘‘It was not my design in coming here to 
enter into a disputation with any one. But I 
appear before you, my warriors and my people, 
not to throw in my plea against the accusations 


APPENDIX 


()4 

of Tccumseli; but to prevent your forming rasli 
and dangerous resolutions upon things of high¬ 
est importance, through the instigations of 
others. I have myself learned by experience, 
and also see many of you, () Choctaws and 
Chickasaws, who have the same experience of 
years that 1 have—the injudicious steps of en¬ 
gaging in an enterprise because it is new. Nor 
do 1 stand up before you tonight to contradict 
the many facts alleged against the American 
])eo])le, or to raise my voice against them in use¬ 
less accusations. The question before us now 
is not what wrongs they have inflicted upon 
our race, hut what measures are best for us to 
adopt in regard to them; and though our race 
may have lieen unjustly treated and shamefully 
wronged by them, yet f shall not for that reason 
alo]ie advise you to destroy them, unless it were 
just and ex])edient for you so to do; nor, would T 
advise you to forgive them, though worthy of 
your commiseratio]], unless 1 believed it would 
he to the interest of our common good. We 
should consult more in regard to our future wel¬ 
fare than our present. What peo])le, my friends 
and countrymen, were so unwise and inconsider¬ 
ate as to engage in a war of their own accord, 
when their own strength, and even with the aid 
of others, was judged unequal to the task, T well 
know causes often arise wliich force men to con- 


APPENDIX 


65 


front extremities, but, my countrymen, those 
causes do not now exist. Eeflect, therefore, I 
earnestly beseech you, before you act hastily in 
this great matter, and consider with yourselves 
how greatly you will err if you injudiciously 
approve of and inconsiderately act upon Tecum- 
seh^s advise. Eemember, the American people 
are now friendly disposed toward us. Surely 
you are convinced that the greatest good may 
result to us by the adoption of and adhering to 
those measures I have before recommended to 
you; and, without giving too great a scope to 
mercy or forbearance, by which I could never 
permit myself to be seduced, I earnestly pray 
you to follow my advice in this weighty matter, 
and in following it resolve to adopt those ex¬ 
pedients for our future welfare. My friends, 
fellow countrymen! You now have no just cause 
to declare war against the American people, or 
wreak your vengeance upon them as enemies, 
since they have ever manifested feelings of 
friendship towards you. It is besides inconsis¬ 
tent with your national glory and with your 
honor, as a people, to violate your solemn treaty; 
and a disgrace to the memory of your fore¬ 
fathers, to wage war against the American peo¬ 
ple merely to gratify the malice of the English. 

‘ ‘ The war, which you are now contemplating 
against the Americans, is a flagrant breach of 


66 


APPENDIX 


justice; yea, a fearful blemish on your honor 
and also that of your fathers, and which you 
will find if you examine it carefully and judic- 
ioush", forbodes nothing but destruction to our 
entire race, jit is a war against a people whose 
territories are now far greater than our own, 
and who are far better provided with all the' 
necessary implements of war, with men, guns, 
horses, wealth, far beyond that of all our race 
combined, and where is the necessity of wisdom 
to make war upon such a people? Where is our 
]iope of success, if thus weak and unprepared we 
should declare it against them? Let us not be 
deluded with the foolish hope that this war, if 
begun, will soon be over, even if we destroy all 
the whites within our territories, and lay waste 
their homes and fields. Far from it. It will bd 
but the beginning of the end that terminates in 
the total destruction of our race, and though we 
will not permit ourselves to be made slaves, or, 
like inexperienced warriors, shudder at the 
thought of war, yet I am not so insensible and 
inconsistent as to advise you cowardly to yield 
to the outrages of the whites, or wilfully to 
connive at their unjust encroachments; but only 
not yet to have recourse to war, but to send Am¬ 
bassadors to our Great Father at Washington, 
and lay before him our grievances, without be- 
trajdng too great eagerness for war, or mani^ 


APPENDIX 


<57 


festing any tokens of pusillanimity. Let us, 
therefore, my fellow countrymen, form our re¬ 
solutions with great caution and prudence upon 
a subject of such vast importance, and in which 
such fearful consequence may be involved. 

‘‘Heed not, 0, my countrymen, the opinions 
of others to that extent as to involve your coun¬ 
try in a war that destroys its peace and en¬ 
dangers its future safety, prosperity, and hap¬ 
piness. Reflect, ere it be too late, on the great 
uncertainty of war with the American people, 
and consider well, ere you engage in it, what the 
consequence will be if you should be disap¬ 
pointed in your calculations and expectations. 
Be not deceived with illusive hopes. Hear me, 0, 
my countrymen, if you begin this war it will end 
in calamities to us from which we are now free 
and at a distance; and upon whom of us they 
will fall, will only be determined by the uncer¬ 
tain and hazardous event. Be not, I pray you, 
guilty of rashness, which I never as yet have 
known you to be; therefore, I implore you, while 
healing measures are in the election of us all, 
not to break the treaty, not violate your pledge 
of honor, but to submit our grievances, what¬ 
ever they may be, to the Congress of the United 
States, according to the articles of the treaty 
existing between us and the American people. If 
not, I here invoke the Great Spirit, who takes 


68 


APPENDIX 


cognizance of oaths, to bear me witness, that I 
shall endeavor to avenge myself upon the 
authors of this war, by whatever methods you 
shall set me an example. Remember we are a 
people who have never grown insolent with 
success, or become abject in adversity; but let 
those who invite us to hazardous attempts by 
uttering our praise, also know that the pleasure 
of hearing has never elevated our spirits above 
Our judgement, nor an endeavor to exasperate us 
by flow of invectives to be provoked the sooner 
to compliance. From tempers equally balanced 
let it be known that we are warm in the field of 
battle, and cool in the hours of debate; the for¬ 
mer, because of sense of duty has the greater 
influence over a sedate disposition, and magna¬ 
nimity the keenest sense of shame; and though 
good we are at debate, still our education is not 
polite enough to teach us a contemjjt of laws, 
yet by its severity gives us so much good sense 
as never to disregard them. 

‘‘We are not a people so impertinently wise 
as to invalidate the preparations of our enemies 
by a plausible harangue, and then absolutely 
proceed to a contest; but we reckon the thoughts 
of the pale-faces to be similar cast with our own, 
and that harzardous contingencies are not to be 
determined by a speech. We always presume 
that the projects of our enemies are judiciously 


APPENDIX 


69 


planned and then we seriously prepare to defeat 
them. Nor do we found our success upon the 
hope that they will certainly blunder in their 
conduct, but upon the hope that we have omitted 
no proper steps for our own security. Such is 
the discipline which our fathers, have handed 
down to us; and by adhering to it, we have 
reaped many advantages. Let us, my country¬ 
men, not forget it now, nor in short space of 
time precipitately determine a question in which 
so much is involved. It is indeed the duty of the 
prudent, so long as they are not injured to de¬ 
light in peace. But it is the duty of the brave, 
when injured, to lay peace aside, and to have re¬ 
course to arms; and when successful in these, 
then to lay them down again in peaceful quiet; 
thus never to be elevated above measure by suc¬ 
cess in vrar, nor delighted with the sweets of 
peace to sutler insults. For he who, apprehen¬ 
sive of losing the delight, sits indolently at ease, 
will soon be deprived of the enjoyment of that 
delight which interesteth his fears; and he whose 
passions are inflamed by military success, ele¬ 
vated too high by a treacherous confidence, hears 
no longer the dictates of judgment. 

^‘Many arQ the schemes, though unadvisedly 
planned, through the more unreasonable con¬ 
duct of an enemy, which turn out successful; 
but more numerous are those which, though 


70 


APPENDIX 


seemingl}^ founded on mature counsel, draw 
after them a disgraceful and opposite result. 
This proceeds from that great inequality of 
spirit with which an exploit is projected and 
with which it is put into actual execution. For 
in counsel we resolve, surrounded with security; 
in execution we faint, through the prevalence of 
fear. Listen to the voice of prudence, oh, my 
countrymen, ere you rashly, act. But do as 
you may, know this truth, enough for you to 
know, I shall join our friends, the Americans, 
in this war. ’ ^ 

All who will follow me to victory and glory 
in this war let me also see your tomahawks in 
the air. 

Considering his wonderful voice and per¬ 
sonal magnetism, as testified to, by all White 
men who knew him, it is a certainty that Col. 
Pitchlynn did not overdraw it, but that his effort 
to reproduce it must be feeble when compared to 
its delivery, as Col. Pitchlynn says, for it saved 
the settlers of our territories, and gave us suc¬ 
cess in the second war with Great Britain, in 
which it enabled us to Avin one battle on land in 
that conflict. Note some of the superb expres¬ 
sions of that speech. '‘Pleasure of hearing has 
never elevated our spirits above our judgment.^’ 
May the American Amter say this after listening 
to the demagogue. Note again : "We are Avarm 


APPENDIX 


71 


in the field of war; cool in the hours of debate.” 
AYhat an admirable practice. Then recall his 
appeal to their honor to keep their word and 
that of “their fathers” and he calls on the 
“Great Spirit” to register his oath to punish 
any Choctaw who violates the pledges by 
^ ^ solemn treaty. ^ • Again: ‘ ‘ Still our education 
is not polite enough to teach us a contempt of 
laws.” Note the wisdom in the paragraph next 
before the last, how to measure an opponent and 
preserve peace and finally observe how bluntly 
he throws down the gauntlet even to Tecumseh 
and the other chiefs. The more one reads that 
oration, the larger it looms. 

It is said he vowed that every Choctaw who 
ran away to join Tecumseh should be shot upon 
his return and that only thirty ran away and 
but one of them lived to return. 

CHIEFS^ PERSONAL SKETCHES 

APUSH-MA-TA-HA-HU-BI, the real, or full 
name of General Pushmataha. Apush-ma-ta- 
ha, the name he called himself. 

ASSEOLA, usually called “Oseola,” a noted 
Seminole Chief, who angered at the government 
on account of some annuities which it refused to 
pay, as a means of “pressure,” ended the par¬ 
ley by plunging his knife into the table at the 


72 


APPENDIX 


Council, saying: ‘‘The next treaty I make will 
be with this.’' The real parley grew out of the 
Seminoles’ refusal to agree to move west and 
the government violated its obligation to secure 
acquiescence. The old Chief began to steal 
Negro slaves and to run them off to Florida. 
The government began an active war with the 
two-fold object of returning the slaves and re¬ 
moving the Seminoles to the Indian Territory 
Country where they now live. The “Century 
History” of the United States estimates that it 
cost the United States the lives of three soldiers 
and $80,000.00 for every slave they brought 
back; while General Upton’s “Military Policy” 
recites that 60,000 men were engaged against the 
Seminoles of 1500 warriors, but the war ended 
without removing a single Indian. HoW much 
better had it been, and cheaper to, had the Gov¬ 
ernment kept its promise. But it almost de¬ 
stroyed the best mental and moral forces of the 
Seminoles. Their best and bravest men were 
killed, and left them without leadership which 
resulted in their admixture with the Negro. 

The treatment of the Seminoles is properly 
a distinct part of “A Century of Dishonor.” 

BUFFINGTON, a modern Chief of the 
Cherokees. His home is at Vinita. 


APPEI^DIX 


73 


BROWN, John Brown, as unassuming, wise 
old business man, honest as the longest day of 
June^ and full-blood Chief of the Seminoles for 
upwards of thirty years. He was the last elected 
Chief. He died about 1912 at his home in Sas- 
akwa, where he maintained a very thriving 
mercantile business. In the old days, he was 
associated in business with A. J. Brown and a 
white man by the name of C. L. Long, a very 
just and upright man, the same man who was 
elected one of the four ^‘Congressmen’^ in the 
Sequoyah movement to represent the proposed 
State in Congress. Long organized the Wewoka 
post office about the year 1884, and kept it many 
years, says C. Guy Cutlip, an attorney of We¬ 
woka. 

Chief John Brown held the universal con¬ 
fidence of the full-blood Indians, not alone of 
his own Tribe but of those of the Chickasaw, 
Choctaw, and Creek, as well as all white men 
with whom he came in close association. The 
first time the writer heard of “Chief John 
Brown,” was from a full-blood Chickasaw 
woman, whom he represented in some litigation, 
more than twenty-five years ago. He was rather 
surprised when told that she must “go Semi¬ 
nole Nation, see Chief John Brown, get money” 
with which to pay cost. On further inquiring 
she said: ‘ ‘ He good man; keep all my money, ” 


74 


APPENDIX 


which then aggregated some $5,000.00. This 
caused the writer to watch Chief John Brown. 
No one was ever heard to complain that he failed 
to return on demand every cent entrusted to his 
care. 

The writer recommends John Brown’s 
course to the Governors of Oklahoma—When 
‘‘We the people” have the good sense to choose 
men of such integrity, for their governors. 

GERONIMO, the celebrated Apache Chief, 
who with his entire band were kept for more 
than sixty years as “prisioners of war” within 
the Ft. Sill Military Reservation. The Govern¬ 
ment never could crush his will or spirit—Till 
his death, some fifteen years ago. He ever kept 
his spirit ready for march. 

A few years before his death, he slipped past 
the guards and had all his band^—men, women, 
and children—on the march and thirty-five miles 
away before they were missed by the military 
authorities. What a spirit must have burned be¬ 
hind that silent. Stoic face and what a heroic 
lieart must have been wrapped in that blanket! 

JOSEPH, Chief Joseph, of the Origin In¬ 
dians, who did not want “His people taught to 
quarrel about God.” 


APPENDIX 


75 


JOHNSTON, Douglas H. Johnston, one- 
fourth Chickasaw, son of Col. John Johnston, 
one of the family of Oeneral Albert Sidney 
Johnston of the Confederate Army; and one of 
the officers who removed the Chickasaws from 
Tennessee to their present home. He remained 
ill their new home where he married with a half- 
breed Chickasaw woman, and reared a numer¬ 
ous famih\ D. H. Johnston, the youngest son, 
has been Governor of the Chickasaw Nation, 
continuously (except the two-year-term of P. S. 
Mosley) since 1898. He was the last elected 
Governor, and holds over, during good be¬ 
havior, under the “Atoka Agreement,’^ and its 
“Supplementary Agreement.” He would be a • 
credit to any Western State as Governor. He is 
the best judge of men, the most generous, and 
diplomatic man, the author ever knew. He is as 
high-minded as the old “Southern Johnstons,” 

—always with exact sense of propriety and de¬ 
portment of a thoroughbred gentleman of the. 
old Southern type. Nothing low or mean ever 
came to his head or heart—the author can say 
this after a continual personal and intimate 
association with him since 1899. 

LeFLORE, Greenwood LeFlore, half Choc¬ 
taw, his father being one of the old Marshals of 
Napoleon, who fled France after the Battle of 


76 


APPENDIX 


Waterloo. He was a powerful Chief of the 
Choctaws in Mississippi; built, so Senator Var- 
deman stated to the author, the finest resident 
building in that state up to the time of his death, 
and furnished it throughout with rich and costly 
furniture and tapestry imported from France. 
Man}" characteristic anecdotes have been told of 
him. One in which it was said he visited Presi¬ 
dent Andrew Jackson to request the removal of 
a worthless Indian Agent, a personal friend of 
old “Hickory.” Jackson protested that the 
Chief was meddling in his atfairs. LeFlore 
answered in positive tone: “He must be re¬ 
moved.” Whereupon Jackson slapped his 
breast saying: “I, Andrew Jackson, President 
of the United States, say he shall not.” The 
old chief without flinching, slapped his own 
breast and with equal determination and em¬ 
phasis responded: “I, Greenwood LeFlore, 
principal chief of the Choctaw Nation, swear 
that if you do not remove him, I vfill.” Two 
representatives of imperious force and will had 
met but the agent shortly resigned. 

Many of Oklahoma’s most worthy and prom¬ 
inent citizens, proudly trace their lineage back 
to this remarkable man. Among them may be 
named Mrs. Ed Perry, and the deceased wife of 
Ex-Governor Lee Cruce, and Wm. W. LeFlore 


APPENDIX 77 

of Choctaw County, almost a full-blood, but a 
most ready and brilliant orator. 

At the suggestion of the Hon. Chas. H. Pitt¬ 
man, the author lent his assistance in naming 
for this great chief LeFlore County, Oklahoma. 

LOGAN, his Indian name was Tahgahjut; 
but his father (Chief Wingohocking) swapped 
names with James Logan, Secretary to Wm. 
Penn and later Chief Justice of the Pennsyl¬ 
vania Colony, a scholar, and philosopher and 
known friend to the Indian. The chief’s name 
was given to a small Pennsylvania stream and 
Logan’s to his son. 

Lord Dunsmore, governor of the Virginia 
Colony in 1774, led an expedition against the 
Indians in Ohio, and he and the Mincos, or head¬ 
men, of numerous tribes agreed on terms of 
peace. Lord Dunsmore especially desired the 
signature to the Treaty of Logan who then was 
chief of all Mincos, but had refused to attend. 
An old friend of Logan’s (John Gibson) was 
sent to secure the chief’s attendance. They met, 
walked a pace, and, stopping under an old Elm 
Tree, known to this day as ^‘Logan’s Elm,” 
near Circleville, Ohio, the old chief delivered his 
^‘Message” replying to Lord Dunsmore, which 
soon spread over both continents as it became a 
classic gem throughout the colonies. 


78 


APPENDIX 


Of it Thomas Jeiferson said: ‘‘I may chal¬ 
lenge the whole orations of Demosthenes and 
Cicero and of any more eminent orators, to pro¬ 
duce a single passage superior to the speech of 
Logan, a Minco chief, to Lord Dunsmore.’^ 
William McGulfey gave it prominent place in 
one of his school readers, where old men, now 
living, will recall it during their school days, 
forty years ago. 

Alfred Lee, in Randall and Ryan’s history, 
says: ‘‘Taken in connection with the circum¬ 
stances which are said to have inspired it, this 
is one of the most pathetic deliverances in all 
literature. In brevity, simplicity, and direct¬ 
ness of appeal, it bears a striking resemblance 
to Abraham Lincoln’s dedicatory address at 
Gettysburg. 

CHIEF LOGAN TO LORD DUNSMORE 

“I appeal to any White man to say, if ever he 
entered Logan’s cabin hungry and he gave him 
not meat; if ever he came cold and naked and he 
clothed him not. During the couse of the last, 
long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his 
cabin, an advocate of peace. Such was my love 
for the whites that my countrymen pointed as 
they passed and said, ‘Logan is the friend of 
the AVhite man. ’ Colonel Cresap the last spring. 


APPENDIX 


79 


in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered all the 
relatives of Logan, not sparing even his women 
and children. There runs not a drop of my 
blood in the veins of any living jcreature. This 
called on me for revenge. I have sought it. I 
have killed many. I have fully glutted my ven¬ 
geance. For my country, I rejoice at the beams 
of peace. Yet do not harbor the thought that, 
mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. 
He will not turn on his heel to save his own life. 
Who is there to mourn for Logan! Not one.^’ 

It was recorded at that time that the speech’ 
was delivered after Logan had burst into tears 
on recalling a recent massacre of some of his kin 
by the whites. 

Gibson immediately reported the speech to 
Lord Dunsmore, and as early as 1781 it had 
spread through Europe and other civilized coun¬ 
tries. 

Gibbon states he took the words down just 
as they Avere delivered and that they were 
spoken in English. 

LONE WOLFE, Chief of one of the “Affil¬ 
iated^’ bands near Ft. Sill. Has lived on his 
farm in a very substantial house for many 
years, a sober, upright, and substantial citizen. 
He is noted oA^er the LTnited States for being a 
})arty to a suit in the U. S. Supreme Court 


80 


APPENDIX 


brought in his name by the ‘^Indian Rights 
Association” of Philadelphia, to test the power 
of Congress to violate the obligations of Indian 
Treaties, without the Indian’s consent. Their 
decision known as the ^^Lone Wolf Decission” 
left ‘‘Poor Lo!” without a leg to stand on—at 
the complete mercy of the political power of the 
Government. 

McCItRTAIN, Green McCurtain, Modern 
Principal Chief of the Choctaws, last elected; 
died in office since Statehood—a wise, honest, 
upright man. McCurtain County, Oklahoma, 
was named in his honor. His son. Judge D. C. 
McCurtain, is and has been for many years, 
Judge of LePlore, County, Oklahoma. 

McIntosh, a Creek Chief in their old Ala¬ 
bama home. He lost his life through advocating 
the Treaty for removal west. Many of the 
strongest men of the Creek Country of Okla¬ 
homa, are his descendants, among them, the late 
Hon. Cheasie McIntosh. The Mclntoshes, like 
the Graysons, and the Poseys, have no inter¬ 
mixture of Negro blood. They are a proud and 
honorable family. 

OVERTON, B. F., Governor of the Chicka¬ 
saw Nation following the Civil war. A very 
strong character having served as governor con- 


APPENDIX 


81 


tinuously for twenty-five years, or more. Many 
of the progressive and wise laws adopted in 
their old government were due to his influence. 

PHILLIP, a Chief of the new England Colo¬ 
nies who lived in the days prior to the American 
Revolution, and Chief character in the ‘ ‘ French 
and Indian War;’’ much history and literature 
has been written about this noted chief of a very 
early date. 

PARKER, Quanuah Parker, Half-white- 
Comanche Chief. His father was named No- 
cona. His mother, Cynthiann Parker, daughter 
of Col. I. D. Parker, one of the first settlers of 
Parker County, Te:5tas, was captured by the 
Comanches on one of their many Full Moon 
forays to North Texas, while a small child. 
AVhen she grew to womanhood, she was recap¬ 
tured by the Texas Rangers under command of 
Col. Sol Ross, later governor of Texas and many 
stories were then written about her, which 
stories had much to do in electing him. While 
the Rangers Avere killing Indians indiscrimin¬ 
ately, she patted her breast and exclaimed: 
‘Ale, Cynthiann! Me, Cynthiann!” the only 
English words she could then speak. Her kin 
identified her by the absence of one finger, which 
her little brother had chopped off with a hatchet 
while at play. She was never happy with her 


82 


APPENDIX 


relatives and was returned to the Comanches, 
where she became the wife of Chief Nocona. 
Their son, Quannah, used to make frequent 
visits to his Texas white kin. He visited the 
Oklahoma First Legislature and called on the 
Speaker and said to the author. akin to 
Judge Parker who ran for President. I Demo¬ 
crat too. ^ ^ He died but a few years since at an 
advanced age. He counciled peace at all times 
between his people and the whites, and was re¬ 
spected by all. His home was some ten or twelve 
miles west of Lawton, Oklahoma. 

PORTER, General Plesant Porter, mixed 
blood Creek Chief, the last elected under the 
^ ‘ Allotment Treaties. ’ ^ He died about the year 
of Statehood. ‘‘Drunk or sober, in a bawdy 
house, church or saloon, he was always, under 
all circumstances a gentleman,’’ and commanded 
such respect. That statement, the writer has 
often heard of him. 

In the days of Federal Court Rule of the In¬ 
dian Territory, on one occasion a petition was 
presented to Federal Judge Raymond at Mus¬ 
kogee for a writ of Injunction, restraining P. 
Porter “Chief of the Creek Nation,” which was 
granted by the Court. At the noon hour, Gen. 
Porter sought the judge at his Hotel and the 
following colloquy occurred: 


APPENDIX S3 

General Porter: ^ ‘ Sir, I presume, I have the 
honor to meet Judge Raymond?” 

Judge Raymond: ^‘You have; wliat do you 
want?” ^ 

Porter: ‘‘Sir, I understand your honor has 
issued an injunction against me; may I;in(|nire; 
does it mean against Plesant Porter, personalljv 
or as ‘Chief of the Creek Nation’?” 

Judge: “As Chief.” 

General Porter: “Then,. Sir, I inform you 
that I shall violate your order, as issued without 
jurisdiction. Sir, the Creek Nation is a spwr-' 
eign State and not subject to a ‘Legi.slative' 
Court’—and. Sir, I further inform you that be-’ 
fore you shall disgrace me by imprisoUmeut 
under an unauthorized, arbitrary rilling, by-fhd' 
1 ’ll kill you, good-day. ” 

It is said the judge a^ked who that man wa^ 
and at the afternoon session, the judge as sooij 
as court convened, looked about and said: 

‘ ‘ Ahem, Gentlemen of the Bar, on this forenoon.,^ 
the Court inadvertantly issued, an order against 
the Creek Nation. That is without authority 
this Court. The order is vacated and.dissolved;,’. 
—Proceed gentlemen, with the case at bar. ” , > 

The story is told—and General Porter gave 
the writer his side of it—of how he got the title 
“General.” It is: ... 


84 


APPENDIX 


Some thirty odd years ago, the government 
desired the Creeks to adopt a certain policy to- 
which Chief Porter would not agree, conceivLiig, 
it not to be to the best interests of his people. 
The government sought to apply ^^pressure,’’’ 
as ill the case of Asseola, the Seminole Chiefs 
which to our shame, has too often been its re 
sort. Under a pretense of an ^‘Indian disorder, 
that threatened to become an outbreak. The 
Indian Bureau gave out a few news dispatches 
and called on the Secretary of War to send 200 
troops from one of the Western Forts to Pre¬ 
serve Order in the Creek Nation.’’ When they 
arrived. Chief Porter realized that it meant his 
slavish obedience to the Bureau to the detriment 
of his people, or his down-fall and disgrace. He 
called together his entire force of light-horse¬ 
men (the tribal militia) silently marched them 
to the rendezvous of the United States Troops. 
Awaiting the cover of night when the General 
was asleep, he surrounded the military camp, 
disarmed the sentinels, captured the general, 
and his entire army. Building a stockade, he put 
them all in it, being careful that no intelligence 
should reach the outside world. After two days 
^Ho let the American General sweat off his 
anger,” said Porter, 'H had him brought to my 
well provided-for-the-occasion-war headquar¬ 
ters. T said in very solemn tones: ‘‘General, I 


APPENDIX 


•Sd 

have the honor of havhng you and all your com¬ 
mand as my prisoners of war/’ said Chief Por¬ 
ter. ‘^1 shall prove to you my generosity to a 
vanquished foe. I’ll make a treaty with you, 
permitting you to carry your sword and all your 
men their side-arms and to march back to your 
Western fortifications, under one condition, that 
you sign a telegram to the W^ar Department 
which r shall write. Of course, I fully realize 
what 1 have done—that if it become known 1 
shall be shot, but it will disgrace you for life, 
(leneral, to be known that you and your entir(‘ 
command were surprised and captured by a 
bunch of Indians. I selected my course because 
I had rather die than be disgraced. 1 tested your 
vSpirit. I offer you your life and honor, in ex¬ 
change for a preservation of my own honor. 
Now, I return you to your prison to think over 
it for twenty-four hours.” 

“The following evening the prisoner was 
brought to my headquarters,” continued Porter, 
“and 1 presented him a telegram addressed to 
tlie War Department, running thus: 

“Conqilete order prevails in Creek Nation, 
(xeneral Plesant Porter and his Light Horsemen 
are in complete control. Please wire further 
orders.” (Signed.) 

(To be sure “General Porter was in con¬ 
trol.”) : . 


APPENDIX 


m 


The telegram was dispatched to the nearest 
(but distant) telegraph station, and the General 
returned to the stockade. In due time a reply 
was received from the Secretary of War, direct¬ 
ing him: ‘‘Leave General Plesant Porter in 
control and return with your command to the 
Fort.’^ “So you see,’’ says General Porter, in 
relating the story, “I was really commissioned 
‘General’ by the U. S. Secretary of War, and 
ever since both here and in Washington I have 
retained the title. ’ ’ 

In the Sequoyah convention General Porter 
read a production on the “Death” of the Indian 
governments, which may be found in the Mus¬ 
kogee newspapers of that date (1905) which for 
phathos, diction, and sentiment we have ever 
since regarded as a literary gem, equal to that 
of Chief Logan’s. 

General Porter and the late Col. H. B. 
Spaulding, life long friends, both gone to their 
final reward, were very kindred spirits, often 
seen together, and the author never enjoyed the 
company of two men better than these two noble 
souls, and he shall ever cherish as a dear privi¬ 
lege during their life time, of calling both his 
good friends. 

PIOMINCO, Pure-blood Chickasaw Chief in 
the days of the American Revolution. He was 


APPENDIX 


87, 


ever fond of boasting of his personal friendship 
with General George Washington. His troops 
were enlisted under Washington. See text of 
Essays. His real name was Piominco. 

POWHATAN, Chief of Virginia Indians, 
father of Pocahontas (See her Essay for de^ 
scription.) 

PUSHMATAHA, the name given Apush*-^ 
^nataha, by the whites. > i 

RED CLOUD, Full-blood Sioux Chief. The 
government removed him and his band of 4,000; 
warriors and their wives and children, after 
Sitting Bull was driven into Canada, from their 
old homes to a point on the Missouri River for 
winter, with the promise that they should be 
taken to a permanent home in the following 
Spring. When the time arrived for the order to 
go, instead, an Indian Commissioner, Meyers by 
name, with a bald head, met them with the pur¬ 
pose of talking them into going to another reser¬ 
vation. As he began his talk, Red Cloud inter¬ 
rupted him, with: “When it conies time for the 
government to keep its promise, we are met with 
some liar from Washington, and the bald-headed 
are the worst liars of all. You have nothing to 
do here but to kee|) the governmenUs promise 
and sign the order for our removal. If you do 



88 


APPENDIX 


not issue the order, I will, and I have 4,00v0 
armed men to back my order. For once the gov¬ 
ernment’s promise was kejit promptly—the or¬ 
der was given. When 4,000 armed and deter¬ 
mined men led by a wise and brave chief met an 
Indian officer, nobody could blame him if he kept 
his word, under such circumstances, but when 
they are helpless it is another thing altogether. 
(See Helen Hunt Jack^on/s ‘‘A Century of 
Dishonor.’’) 

RIDGE, celebrated Chief of the Cherokees of 
about a hundred years ago. Founder of the 
Ridge PartyC^ in the Cherokee Nation. 

ROGERS, Chief William Rogers, of Chero¬ 
kees, about the time of Statehood, ancestor of 
the stage humorist, and stage roping stunt— 
Will Rogers. 

ROSS, Chief of the Cherokees during the 
Civil War. Tln^ writer has in his library a 
''History of the Highland Clans,” printed in 
Edinburgh, Scotland, which gives complete des¬ 
cent of Chief Ross back to the "Ross Clan” of 
the Highlands—did you ever observe the effect 
of the cross between the North American In¬ 
dian and other races—^that ninety per cent of 
the steady and prominent mix bloods—men of 
strong characters—are a cross with the Scotch 


aippe:n^dix 


89 


or German—just a few exceptions? This is a 
fruitful study for students of Ethnology. Once 
in conversation with Gen. Pratt, (retired) foun¬ 
der of Carlisle, who spent many years among 
numerous tribes along the Canadian border of 
the Northwest. He stated that was true there 
and in Canada. The writer believes he has 
solved the reasons therefor, but they would re¬ 
quire too much space to be given here. 

SITTING BULL, head Chief of the Sioux, 
who annihilated Gen. Custer ^s army at the 
Battle of the “Little Big Horn.^’ At the time 
of this campaign (in the 70’s). Sitting Bull was 
as well trained in military strategy and tactics 
as any General on this continent. A cadet to 
West Point, upon returning home, found his 
sweetheart had gilted him and married an¬ 
other. He resigned from the Army in disgust 
and went west to make his home among the 
Sioux Indians. For passtime, he trained the 
stalwart Sioux in military tactics. So Sitting 
Bull had acquired the arts of war of the White 
man, which he added to the cunning of his own 
race. Gen. Custer, found from the report of his 
scouts that Sitting Bull and his entire army of 
some 4,000 warriors were stationed in a cause¬ 
way between two ranges of mountains, with no 
osca})e except U]) or down the causeway and 


APPENDIX 


!5b 

valley of the two ranges. Seeking to hem the 
Sidiix and hammer them, all at one stroke, with 
his artillery into submission, he ordered Reno, 
his aid, to make a detour and come up the cause¬ 
way and at a given signal, to march straight to 
•him, stationed at the; other end of the causeway 
with the cannon. It was a bold plan and might 
have succeeded but for the cowardice of Reno. 
(Custer was so brave that he could not imagine 
any man could be a coward) and if he had 
inatched military wits with some other than Sit ¬ 
ting Bull. By all rules of war save one (the 
■fatal mistake of dividing his strength) he should 
have won, having an artillery, small to be sure, 
•but -“victory is on the side of the heaviest artil¬ 
lery” said Xapoleon and the Indian had none, 

• But he detected the mistake of division and 
played it like Stonewall Jackson in the Shan- 
•nandoah Valley when he with 15,000 men held at 
'bay 60,000 and four well trained generals, strik- 
■dng Banins'here. Shields there and driving ]\Ic- 
Glelland to the rear before they could combine 
forces. When Custer gave Reno the number of 
idays to make the detour and get into the rear of 
Sitting Bull, it is clear that Indian Scouts had 
followed his course; for when Custer gave the 
signal .from his artillery. Sitting Bull, detailed 
a mere handful to make a feint against Custer, 
'hut faced Reno with nearly the whole of his 
4,000 warriors, and as Congressman Miller of 


APPENDIX 


91 


Minnesota stated on the floor of Congress, ‘ ‘ Man 
for man, there never lived a greater warrior 
than the Sioux Indian. ’ ^ The first shock of sur¬ 
prise whipped Eeno, and finally he fled down the 
causeway chased at full speed by a few hundred 
Indians. Turning with the larger portion of his 
force, Sitting Bull began attack on Custer from 
three sides, so as to avoid the galling fire of the 
cannon. Scarcely a single man escaped, Custer 
with all his force perished. At the opening of 
the battle. General Custer had, according to the 
war records, 3,800 trained soldiers with some 
artillery and very superior weapons. It was a 
drawn battle with military strategy displayed 
on both sides and the victory was complete and 
decisive; but to ‘^save the face’’ of the war 
department it was called a ‘Gnassacre.” Reno 
was court marshaled and “whitewashed,” and 
the American people were none the wiser for 
were there not hung in every saloon throughout 
the land large oil paintings showing the mas¬ 
sacre! Verily; “History is a fable agreed 
upon,” sometimes. 

SEQUOYAH, or George Guist, Cherokee- 
German,, the genius who devised the Cherokee 
Syllabary, sometimes called alphabet, wherein 
the eighty-six sounds of the Cherokee language 


92 


APPENDIX 


lias one sound for a letter or symbol, and but 
one, with no silent letters. 

Wliat a travesty on the scholars of the Eng¬ 
lish-speaking race that they have twenty-six 
letters to represent forty-two sounds, with all 
the difficulty in spelling English words, when 
they should have, like Sequoyah’s, forty-two let¬ 
ters—one for each sound and but one, with no 
silents. To do it only requires agreement among 
the English scholars and the compiling of a dic¬ 
tionary in line with it—Th6n we shall spell 
‘ ‘ fotograf ’ ’ and not ^ ‘photograph. ’ ’ Indeed 
then we may abolish the spelling book for so 
soon as, one learns the alphabet, he or she may 
begin reading as did the. Cherokees. 

TEGUMSEH, Shawnee Chief^—His father a 
Shawnee, his mother a full-blood Creek—was 
born in Kentucy enroute to the Home of the 
Shawnees north of the Ohio River, while re¬ 
turning from a visit to the Creeks in Alabama. 

TISHOMINGO, full-blood Chickasaw Chief, 
known among them as “Our George Washing¬ 
ton, ’ ’ who died about 1 839. His real name was 
Tisho-minco—‘ ‘ Tisho ’ ’ means serving and 
“minco ” means Chief—but the English-speak¬ 
ing race has a faculty of changing the names of 
people—“Christopher Columbus,” for instance. 


APPENDIX 


93 


whose real name, and by which he called himself 
and was called by his associates, was ‘‘Cristobal 
Colon/’ Bnt alas! we too often follow the pe¬ 
dantic, for scholarship. The more pompous pon¬ 
derosity, a self-confessed pedant, assumes, the 
more we monical-eyed English swear they are 
“it,” and the “Cockney Kaw-n’t be right, don’t 
you know.” 

THE FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES 

THIS APPENDIX is incomplete, without 
some notes on the Five Tribes—Cherokees, 
Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles— 
who controlled the domain formerly known as 
Indian Territory. 

They are known as the “Five Civilized 
Tribes,” while in a strict sense they were never 
savages. 

Prior to the settlement of Tribal properties, 
and the allotment of their land in severalty, 
these tribes had each independent Soverign Gov¬ 
ernments over the whole of their respective Do¬ 
mains. Each had written constitution and laws, 
with Government divided into three co-ordinate 
branches—a legislature of two branches, elec¬ 
tive by popular vote; an executive also elective, 
the Chief executive in the Chickasaw Nation be¬ 
ing known as “Kufna” (Governor), and in the 


94 


APPENDIX 


other four as ‘‘Principal Chief’’ or Chief (IMin- 
CO, in Choctaw Tongue). Judges of Courts were 
appointive and elective. Their laws were printed 
in both English and their respective languages, 
and distributed free to all citizens, whether 
white, mixed, or full-blood Indians. Their 
court and legislative procedure were conducted 
in both languages. In those of the Chickasaws 
(the author having been licensed to practice in 
their courts arid employed to draft their legisla¬ 
tive bills, became familiar with their practices) 
all bills and discussions, were presented in the 
language the member of the House or Senate of 
his choice, then immediately followed a transla¬ 
tion into the other language. In the trial of 
cases all evidence was taken down in writing 
(English) before the Court and Jury, then read 
in both tongues. The addresses of the attor¬ 
neys were usually made in English, then trans¬ 
lated into Chickasaw. In their common schools 
and academies, English was exclusively taught. 
All tribes had schools and colleges entirely fi¬ 
nanced and managed by themselves. The Chick¬ 
asaws had an educational system, unique among 
them. They had primary schools, all running 
ten months each year, with not less than ten or 
more than thirty-five pupils. The school build¬ 
ing, the teacher, and books were free. Also 
every child’s parent received $8.00 per month 


APPENDIX 


95 


for the child’s attendance—no need of compul- 
sary laws to secure attendance. All went to 
school. When the child passed the primary 
grades, it went to one of the Academies (they 
had four and one orphan home) where it re¬ 
ceived free board—every thing was free, ex¬ 
cept clothing. The Hon. C. D. Carter, of Ard¬ 
more, member of Congress since the State was 
admitted, received his education under their 
system, for they were thorough, as did Con¬ 
gress William Hastings, in the Cherokee 
schools. 

All the funds came from the Tribal revenues, 
and yet Oklahoma is too poor to furnish free 
text-books. 

Nor did the Chickasaws stop there. Every 
two years the Legislature selected twelve of 
the brightest boys of the tribe and sent them 
to some State or other university where they 
were graduated at the Tribe’s expense. 

The full-blood in all these tribes had basic 
honor and integrity. They had vices hut never 
criminally inclined. God never created a more 
truthful witness in a Court of Justice than the 
full-blood Chickasaw, uncontaminated with the 
precepts and example of the White man. In 
fundamental traits of honor and morals, all the 
tribes were alike. 


9G 


APPENDIX 


They had unique laws, peculiar to each tribe. 
The Chickasaws had a written Statute denying 
any Court the exercise of jurisdiction of a suit 
for debt—with them debt paying was an act of 
honor. Any man who failed to pay when he 
could, was ostracised. No one thereafter trusted 
him. Their position was that the government 
should not aid a man who made a bad loan, as 
it did not aid the man making a bad horse-trade. 

In that day thirty years ago, the Chickasaw 
Nation was the best debt-paying community the 
writer every knew—and no trouble for any man 
to get credit. Every man was given a trial. 
This was true of both Whites and Indians. The 
writer represented a White man for theft, and 
privately he admitted it but gave in extenua¬ 
tion, that he could not pay a just debt,’^ with¬ 
out committing the larceny. 

These governments were crude—their laws 
simple, plain, and understandable. They were 
just and equal. Never became as do too often 
the Governments of the White man :—Too iveak 
for the strovri mid too strong for the iveak. 

These Five Tribes, unlike all others, were 
called ‘‘Nations,” and indeed they were Minia¬ 
ture Nations, of Indian “Citizens” and with the 
United States as Suzerain. That is, their juris¬ 
diction extended only to their own citizens, only 
and upon them, whether full-bloods, mixed, or 


APPENDIX 


97 


adoiited whites—there were thousands of the 
latter—and that jurisdiction was complete and 
absolute in all things, excepting the national 
coinage, postal, and interstate-commerce laws 
and such United States laws as were purely na¬ 
tional, similarly to the Suzerainty of Great 
Britain over the Transvaal in Africa. They 
ditfered from the American States in that they 
could not enforce their laws upon other persons 
residing within their domains; neither could 
they in suits-at-law or in equity exercise juris¬ 
diction over persons or property of other per¬ 
sons, except in cases where such ‘‘non-citizen,” 
as they were termed (persons not citizens of the 
Tribe), could and did wave the jurisdiction of 
the Indian Court. In such cases the Indian 
“National” Court retained full and final juris¬ 
diction. Among the “Murray Collections” of 
the Indian Library at Okmulgee, Oklahoma, may 
be found the old Court Records of the Chicka¬ 
saw Nation. In these Records may be found a 
case back in the ’50’s where a White man 
brought a suit for divorce against his wife 
(both United States citizens), as there were no 
other Courts in the Indian Territory at that 
date. The Indian Judge ruled that he had juris¬ 
diction because both parties had waived juris¬ 
diction, voluntarily, and granted the divorce. 
Some twenty or so years later, a case (Mehlon 


98 


APPENDIX 


VS. Ice) was appealed from the Cherokee Tribal 
Court to the Eighth Federal Circuit Court at St. 
Louis. That Court upheld the Indian Court’s 
decree because the United States citizen-party- 
to-the-cause had waived his personal jurisdic¬ 
tion. They also differ from the States of the 
Union in that no Federal Court could review or 
bring into question the constitutionality of their 
laws or Court procedure or relieve any person, 
triable in their Courts, on the grounds that such 
person had not a trial ‘Liccording to law” or 
had been denied life, liberty, or property, “with¬ 
out a due process of the law.” They were final. 
Nor were they like the States in that their 
powers were not irrevocably defined, hence tlie 
Suzerainty of the United States. 

EEMOVAL OF FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES 
Chickasaws, Choctaws, Chekokees, 
Creeks, and Seminoles 

The removal of the Five Civilized Tribes to 
Oklahoma was effectuated by contract through 
a series of years, with private companies, under 
escort of Army officers, the Indian Bureau at 
that time having been under the Secretary of 
War. The papers and Documents are volumin¬ 
ous, and have never been indexed, and, there¬ 
fore, to obtain them, required months of re¬ 
search by clerks of the Indian Bureau. How- 


APPENDIX 


99 


ever, at the instance of the Hon. C. D. Carter, 
the Hon. Chas. H. Burke, Commissioner of lu- 
dian Affairs, very kindly placed at the disposal 
of the writer every opportunity to “dig up” 
these records, and by this means a valuable 
Document, in form or contract, photographed, 
was found, showing the details of the Removal 
of the Creeks, which was the essential method 
used in the case of all the other four Tribes. It 
is reproduced as illustrating the method used. 
In words and figures it is given verbatim, as 
follows; 


“Contract for Removal of the Creeks. 

(Doc. No. 2.) 

c 

“articles OF AGREEMENT. 

“Entered into this thirteenth day of Aug¬ 
ust, eighteen hundred and thirty-six, between 
Captain John Page, United States army, and 
superintendent of Creek removal, under the 
authority of the President of the United States, 
on the part of the United States, and James C. 
Watson, Edward Hanrick, Felix G. Gibson, R. 
W. Williams, A. Abercrombie, Alfred Iverson, 
George Whitman, S. "SI. Ingersoll, James Aber- 


I 


100 APPENDIX 

crombie, William A. Campbell, William J. Beat- 
tie, John D. Howell, William Walker, and T. 
Gilman, to be known in said articles as, and act¬ 
ing under the firm and style of, the Alabama 
Emigrating Company. 

‘ ^ This agreement witnesseth: That the said 
Captain John Page, United States army, for and 
in behalf of the United States of America, and 
the said Alabama Emigrating Company, their 
heirs, executors and administrators, have 
agreed, and by these presents do mutually cove¬ 
nant and agree, 

‘‘1. That the said Alabama Emigrating Com¬ 
pany, their heirs, &c., shall remove the Creek In¬ 
dians, occupants of the Creek nation in the State 
of Alabama, from said nation to a point in the 
new country allotted to the Creeks, west of the 
territory of Arkansas, and within twenty miles 
of Fort Gibson; to wit: men, women, and chil¬ 
dren, with their slaves, and their goods and 
chattels, as hereinafter provided, in manner and 
form, and for the consideration specified in the 
articles of agreement. 

^‘2. That the said Alabama Emigrating Com¬ 
pany, their heirs, &c., shall collect the Indians 
together at such times and places as the super¬ 
intendent, under the orders of the commanding 


APPENDIX 


101 


g-eiieral, shall direct; and said Indians shall he 
subsisted by them from the day designated by 
said superintendent for their departure. 

“3. That the said Alabama Emigrating Com¬ 
pany, their heirs, &c., will despatch to the new 
country aforesaid, by such routes as the super¬ 
intendent shall point out, parties of one thou¬ 
sand Indians, or more, under the conduct of such 
agents as the said Alabama Emigrating Com¬ 
pany, their heirs, &c., may appoint; the In¬ 
dians having first been carefully enrolled. 

“1. That the following shall be the ration, 
and the kind and quantity of transportation, to 
which the Indians, &c., shall be entitled, viz: the 
ration of bread shall be one pound of wheat 
dour, Indian meal, or hard bread, or three- 
fourths of a quart of corn. The meat ration 
shall be one pound of fresh, or three-quarters 
of a pound of salt meat or bacon; and with fresh 
meat, two (piarts of salt to every hundred ra¬ 
tions. 

“The transportation shall be one five-horse 
wagon and fifteen hundred pounds of baggage 
t() from seventy to eight}" persons. The pro¬ 
visions and transportation shall be of the best 
of their kind. The average daily travel shall 
not exceed from twelve to fifteen miles, to be de¬ 
termined by the officer and surgeon. 


102 


APPENDIX 


‘‘5. That the provisions shall be issued daily, 
if practicable, and not less frequently than every 
other day, as well whilst at rest as during the 
travel, until the day (inclusive) of arrival at the 
point of destination west; and that there shall 
be established immediately points upon the en¬ 
tire route westward, at which the provisions are 
to be issued. 

‘‘6. That the sick, those enfeebled from age 
or other cause, and young children, shall be 
transported in wagons or on horseback; that 
those who may be pronounced unable to proceed 
may be left on the route at some proper place, 
and under the care of some person, at the ex¬ 
pense of the United States. 

‘^7. That the Indians’ ponies shall be given, 
from day of starting westward, one-half gallon 
of corn each; provided such disposition in the 
active operations of their removal may be made 
of them, not to include the hauling of wagons 
before mentioned, as the said Alabama Emigrat¬ 
ing Company, and their heirs, &c., may deem 
Ijroper; but that they will not be separated from 
the company to which their owners are respec 
tively attached, nor compelled to carry other 
baggage or persons than those belonging to the 
family of their owners. 


APPENDIX 


103 


‘‘8. That the said Alabama Emigrating Com¬ 
pany, their heirs, &c., shall be entitled to twenty- 
eight dollars and fifty cents a head for each per¬ 
son transported from the Creek nation to the 
place of delivery before mentioned; and for all 
persons who may die or be necessarily left on 
the way as authorized by article 6 of this con¬ 
tract, an amount, in proportion to the distance 
travelled; provided that the evidence herein re¬ 
quired in such cases, of arrival westward, &c., 
is furnished to the proper department. The 
amount due to the said Alabama Emigrating 
Company, their heirs, &c., to be promptly paid 
at such points as may be previously indicated by 
them, and under instructions to be hereafter 
given by the War Department. 

‘^9. The removal of the Indians being a mil¬ 
itary operation, and under the direction of the 
military authorities, the said Alabama Emigrat¬ 
ing Company, their heirs, &c., shall not coerce 
them; all threats and violence toward them are 
prohibited: and they (the Indians) shall he 
treated by the said Alabama Emigrating Com¬ 
pany, their heirs, &c., and by the agent of the 
same, with lenity, forbearance, and humanity. 

“10. That the said United States will fur¬ 
nish the following agents, viz: 


104 


APPENDIX 


“1st. A siiperintendent, whose duty it shall 
be to remain within the limits of the Creek na¬ 
tion during the proper season for operations 
under this contract, for the purpose of seeing 
that its stipulations are fulfilled by the parties 
thereto. He will not be accountable in any way 
for his acts to the said Alabama Kmig'rating- 
Company, their heirs, &c.; and that such super¬ 
intendent shall decide whether seventy or eighty, 
or any intermediate number of Indians, ought, 
consistently with the health and comfort of 
them, to be assigned to each wagon. 

“2nd. Two or more military or other ayents, 
one or more of whom sliall accompany eacli 
liarty west. The duties of these agents shall lie 
to attend particularly to the treatment received 
by the Indians, their rations and transporta¬ 
tion; to remonstrate against any course of con¬ 
duct on tlK‘ part of the agents of the said Ala¬ 
bama Emigrating Company, their heirs, &c., in¬ 
consistent with the letter and spirit of this con¬ 
tract; and if a remedy can be found out in a 
pecuniary expenditure, to make it; which said 
expenditure (if approved of by the superin¬ 
tendent) shall be deducted from the payments 
to l)e made under this contract to the said Ala¬ 
bama Emigrating Company, their heirs, &c. 


APPENDIX 


105 


^‘3d. A surgeon for each emigrating party, 
whose duty it shall be to attend to the sick 
thereof. He shall also be the arbiter in cases of 
difference of opinion between the agents of the 
United States and of the said Alabama Emigrat¬ 
ing Company, relative to the quality of provi¬ 
sions, the time and place of issuing the same, 
and the time of starting and stopping on the 
daily travel; and he shall also decide whether 
invalids may be left on the way, and take care 
that they are provided for, agreeably to article 
6 of this contract; and enter upon the roll the 
time and place of such occurrence, with the date 
of decease of all Indians who may die on the 
route. 

‘‘4th. A disbursing agent in the new Creek 
country west of the Mississippi, whose duty it 
shall be to receive the Indians as they arrive, to 
muster Ihem, and to certify upon the roll pre¬ 
sented to him by the agent of the said Alabama 
Emigrating Company, their heirs, &c., the re¬ 
sult of that muster; said muster to take place 
on the day of arrival (if practicable) at the 
point of destination. 

“And thai the said Alabama Emigrating 
Company, their heirs, &c., shall render every 
facility to the aforeg^id superintendent, mili- 


106 


APPENDIX 


tary, medical, and disbursing* agents, that may 
be necessary to enable them freely to attend to 
the duties of their several offices. 

“11. That the said Alabama Emigrating 
Company shall hold themselves in readiness at 
all times to proceed in the discharge of theii* 
duties under this contract, and are to commence 
the removal of such parties, and at such times 
and places, as may be designated by the super¬ 
intendent of Creek removal, upon notice being 
given them of the time and place of starting, and 
the number of the party to be removed. 

“12. And it is also hereby reserved to the 
United States to annul this contract, to all in¬ 
tents, at any time the aforesaid superintendent, 
under the orders of the general or officer com¬ 
manding in the Creek country, may deem proper, 
upon a non-compliance therewith on the part of 
the said Alabama Emigrating Company. 

Provided, and it is hereby understood by 
the contracting parties, that all such matters as 
are merely in the nature of regulations, and do 
not affect the pecuniary interests of the said 
Alabama Emigrating Company, their heirs, &c., 
are saved to the United States; and that, under 
all circumstances, the United States have com¬ 
plete control of their own officers and agents ; 


APPENDIX 


107 


and further, that where infractions of this con¬ 
tract exist, they must be alleged by either party 
at the time of their occurrence, and that no ef¬ 
fect whatever is to be given hereafter to allega¬ 
tions not thus brought forward. 

‘‘Witness our hands and seals, this 13th day 
of August, eighteen hundred and thirty-six. 

John Page, Capt. and 8upt, of Creehs (seal.) 


J. C. Watson, (seal.) 

Edw. Hanrick, (seal.) 

Wm. Walker, (seal.) 

Alfred Iverson, (seal.) 

S. M. Ingersoll, (seal.) 

Wait S. Hoyt, (seal.) 

A. Abercrombie, (seal.) 

Geo. Whitman, (seal.) 

Wm. a. Campbell, (seal.) 

John Shackelford, (seal.) 


“Signed, sealed, and delivered, and dupli¬ 
cates exchanged in presence of M. W. Batman, 
1st Lieutenant Qth Infantry/^ 


108 


INDEX 


INDEX 

Page 

ATOKA AGREEMENT, Author’s Preface, Forepart.IT 

A-PUSH-MA-TA-HA-HU-BI .29 

APUSHMATAHA’S PHOTO .28 

AUTHOR’S PREFACE, Forepart of Book... I 

ANNE, Queen of England.14 

ARGAL, CAPTAIN .-.5 

His Capture of Pocahontas.G 

ASSEOLA, Chief of Seminoles.71 

His stabbing the table with a knife as a symbol 

of future treaty making.72 

His running off slaves to Florida and cost to 

United States to return them. 72 

BLUE JACKET, JIM.49 

BECKETT, JUDGE A. L,, See Author’s Preface 

Forepart . V 

BEAVER, MARTY, Creek Indian Hero, Foot-note 2.37 

BAILEY, ALFRED G., Cherokee Hero, Foot-note 2.87 

BOLLING, COL. ROBERT, Marries Pocahontas’ 

Grand-daughter .22 

BIBLIOGRAPHY.Forepart of Book 

BOLLING, JOHN OF “COBBS”, Founder of 

“Bolling Family” or “Pocahontas Tree”.22 

BROWN, CHIEF JOHN, of Seminoles.!.73 

His honesty and friend of Full-bloods.74 

BROWN, A. J., Business partner with Chief Brown.74 

BROWN, NICHOLAS E., Choctaw Hero, Foot-note 2.37 

BURKE, CHAS. H., Indian Commissioner.99 

BUFFINGTON, Chief of Cherokees.72 

CABELL, GEN. BENJ. W. S., of United States Army.23 

CABELL, MAJ. A. S., of Confederacy.23 

CABELL, GEN. WILLIAM L., (“Old Tige”) of 

Confederacy .23 




























INDEX 


109 


Pag-e 


CABELL, HENRY S. 23 

CARTER, CONGRESSMAN C. D. 95-99 

CLAIBORNE, BRIG.-GEN. F. L. 47 

CLAIBORNE, J. F. H., Historian.46-50 

CHICKASAW SCHOOL SYSTEM.:. 94 

CORNISH, HON. MELVEN, The Lawyer. 23 

CORNISH, MRS. POCAHONTAS CABELL.23 

CRUCE, LEE, Ex-Governor.76 

CHICKASAWS Unbroken Alliance with English- 

Speaking Peoples.48 

CHOCTAWS LOVE OF HOME.48 

CARR, BOB, Foot-note 2. 37 

CRESAP, COL.78 

CUSTER, GEN., Battle on “Little Big Horn”.89 

CREEK REMOVAL, Contract for.98 

CUSHMAN ON TECUMSEH.49-51 

CUTLIP, C. GUY, Attorney.73 

DALE, GEN. SAM, “Big Sam”.32-46 

His description of Tecumseh’s visit to the Choctaws....48 
His description of Gen. Apushmataha.50 


DALE, Governor of Virginia Colony.3-6-8-11 

His proposal to free Pocahontas to her father.6 

• His treatment of Pocahontas while a prisioner.6-19 

His attempt to capture Powhatan’s second 

daughter ...12 15 

DeWARREAUX, French Artist, Painter of Leader’s 

Portrait, Foot-note 2. 33 

EASMAN, DR., on Daniel Webster’s Indian Blood.45 

ENRIGHT, PRIVATE THOMAS, Foot-note 2.35 

FLOURNAY, GENERAL, Refusal to accept 

Apushmataha’s service.'....48 

His subsequent instruction by the War Department....48 

GAINES, GEORGE S., Indian Agent.46 

GENEOLOGY OF POCAHONTAS.22-24 

GERONIMO, Comanche Chief 60 years prisoner of war....74 

GIBSON, JOHN, Friend of Chief Logan.73 

GREEN, GENERAL, Foot-note 1.32 

GRESHMAN, CORPORAL JAMES B., World War 

Hero, Foot-note 2.35 

HASTINGS, Wm. W., Congressman.95 


































no 


INDEX 


Page 

HARRISON, PRESIDENT WILLIAM HENRY. 49 

HAWKINS, COL. W. S., U. S. Indian Agent.48 

HOUSTON, GEN. SAM.30 

HAY, MARLE D., Foot-note 2.35 

HINDS, GENERAL, Treaty with Pushmataha.42 

INTRODUCTION by Milas Lasater, Forepart.IX 

JACKSON, GEN. ‘ANDREW, Treaty with Pushmataha..42 

He learns the use of 0. K.29 

He complies with the request of Pushmataha— 

“Let the big guns be fired over me.”.59 

JAMES, King of England.14 

JEFFERSON, THOMAS.38-7S 

JOHNSTON, GOV. DOUGLAS H.75 

JONES, JOHN PAUL, Burried in U. S. Naval Academy..2I 

JOSEPH, Chief of Origin Indians.74 

He does not want to learn to “Quarrel about God”.25 

KENNON, DR., of “Conurer’s Neck”.22 

KENNON, MARY, Mother of the “Bolling Family”.22 

KEMP, JOE, Foot-note 1.32 

LAFAYETTE, GEN., Visits United States.55 

LASATER, MILAS, Author of the Introduction, 

See Forepart.XI 

LEADER, SERGEANT OTIS W., Chickasaw Hero, 

World War. 33-34 

His portrait hune: in the Capital of France.33 

LONE WOLFE, CHIEF.79 

LeFLORE, CHIEF GREENV/OOD.75 

LeFLORE, Wm. W.76 

LOGAN, His message to Dunsmore.78 

LONG, C. L.. Organizer of Postoffice at Wewoka.73 

MALONE, JUDGE JAMES H., See Bibliography.32-35 

MANSFIELD, LORD, (Wm. Murray) 

England’s Jurist.22 

McINTOSH, Chief of Creeks.80 

McIntosh, Cheasie. 80 

McCURTAIN, CHIEF GREEN.8U 

McCURTAIN, JUDGE D. C. 80 

McKINNEY’S, (THOMAS L.) “Indian Tribes”....l-28-55-56 
McKEEL, J. F., Supt. Chickasaw Harley Institute 

See Author’s Preface.Ill 


































INDEX 


111 


Page 

McLISH, TURNER, a Chickasaw. 37 

McLISH, JOHN, a Choctaw. 

MEYERS, Baldheaded Commissioner of Indian Affairs....87 
MILFORD, BILL, Half-breed friend of Gen. Dale 4 !) 
MORGAN, GENERAL, Foot-note 1 3 ? 

MURRAY’S, (Wm. H.) “Collection of Indian Books” 

See Author’s Preface.H 

MURRAY^, JAMES, “Old Duke” of Virginia. 22 

MURRAY, JOHN, Removes to Mississippi.22 

MURRAY, JIM and TOM, Settle in Tennessee.22 

NAPOLEON, “The Little Corporal”.39-41 

NAUTAQUAAS, Son of Powhatan.15 

NOCONA, Comanche Chief, Father of Quannah Parker..81 
OKLAHOMBI, PRIVATE JOSEPH, a super-hero. 

World War, Foot-note 2.34-37 

OKLAHOMA, Successor to Pushmataha......59 

OPACHISCO, Brother of Powhatan .......12 

OVERTON, B. F., Chickasaw Governor...80 

PALMER, JOHN, See Author’s Preface....V 

PARKER, COL. 1. D.81 

PARKER, CYNTHEANNE, Mother of Chief Parker.81 

PARKER, CHIEF QUANNAH.81 

PERRY, MRS. ED.7G 

PERSHING, GENERAL, Foot-note 2..'.37 

PETAIN, Marshal of France, Foot-note 2..37 

PIOMINGO, or Piominco, Ancient Chickasaw Chief . 86 

PITTMAN, CHAS., Names County.77 

PITCHLYNN, COL. JOHN, U. S. Indian Interpreter..61-63 

PHILLIP, Chief of “French and Indian War”.81 

PORTER, GEN. PLESANT,.82 

His Experiences with Judge Raymond..82 

How he was commissioned “General”.83 

POTOMAC, Chief of Virginia Indians.6 

POWHATAN, CHIEF, Father of Pocanhontas.1-8-12-13 

POYTHRESS, JANE, Daughter-in-law of Pocahontas.22 

POCAHONTAS, McKinney’s Judgment of 

No full length history of her.1 

She ceases to visit Jamestown.3 

Captured by Captain Argal.,..5 

Made prisoner at Jamestown.J.....G 





































112 


INDEX 


Page 

Her father’s rage at the news.8 

Ransom demanded by Governor Dale.8 

Powhatan’s offer of 500 bushels of corn.8 

Pocahontas as a student at Jamestown.9 

Her conversion to Christianity.10 

Baptized as “Rebecca”.11 

Her teacher, John Rolfe.11 

Her marriage.11 

Character of John Rolfe.11 

“Chain of Pearls” of Powhatan.12 

Attempt to capture Powhatan’s second daughter.12 

Her trip to England.'.13 

Her reception at the Court a^ an American Queen 

by Queen Anne and James.14 

Her treatment by Court and people.18 

Her disappointment at Formal Court Etiquette 

on meeting John Smith.19-20 

Popular opinion of her.17-21 

Preparations for home and her death.21 

Her burial at Gravesend.21 

Religion of Pocahontas’ descendants.24 

Windham Robeson’s statement of their character.25 

Photograph, description of.26 

“Symmetry and Fulness” of her character...26 

Her Photograph.1 

APUSHMATAHA’S Real name, his photograph.29 

Oklahoma County named for him.29 

His service at New Orleans and “Horse Shoe Bend”....30 

Surprised by the Callageheahs.30 

He lives with the Spanish five years..'.31 

He returns to his old home.31 

His distinction of the Callageheah Tribe and 

earned the name “Choctaw Warrior”.31 

Pushmataha, a Chickasaw.33 

He tells the official how he came from the 

trunk of a tree struck by a bolt of lightning.39 

He tells the Choctaws, “I have no father or mother”..41 
He explores Southern Oklahoma and the country 
to the source of the Canadian River.41 


































INDEX 


113 


Page 

He purchases all the country south of the 

Canadian River.'.42 

He tells Gen. Jackson honorable course in 

making a trade.42 

He explains that the United States map “lies’ 

and points out the boundary of Mexico.43 

He asked how the rich White-man may be removed 

from the territory purchased.43 

He proposes setting aside 54 square miles of 

Choctaw land as a perpetual school fund...44 

Making a speech, he felicitates the Choctaws 
on the success of the purchase, and predicts 
the Indian would be holding office in White¬ 
man’s government, and fighting in his wars.45 

Offers his services to Gaines to join the 

military forces against Tecumseh......48 

Pushmataha meets Tecumseh in debate among 

the Choctaws.50 

General Dale’s estimate of him as an Orator 

and a Senator.50 

Claiborne’s estimate of his services in preserving 

“Our Territories”.50 

Push refuses to drink with a minor officer but 

takes a drink with a General.51 

He is presented with a “suit of regimentals” 

by General Claiborne. 51 

Claiborne describes his physique.51 

An anecdote of his quarrel with the Yazoo Chief.52 

He whips the “Creeks into a frazzle”.53 

He justifies custom of two wives.53 

Anecdote of punishing a common soldier for 

insulting his wife.53 

Anecdote of releasing the soldied for being “drunk”....54 

His faults.55 

His speech to General LaFayette.55 

His illness and death at Washington.56 

His speech to the Secretary of War just 

before his death.57 

His burial and Epitaph.58 

His last words.59 

























114 


INDEX 


Page 

His children.59 

His successor, Oklahoma.59 

Pomp and pageantry and military honors 

of his burial.►.GO 

His “Forest Forum Debate” with Tecumseh.61 

Translation of his speech by Colonel Pitchlynn.63 

RANDOLPH, JOHN, descendent of Pocahontas.22 

His speech in the Senate on Pushmataha...58 

RAMSEY, GEORGE S., Muskogee lawyer. 

See Author’s Preface. HI 

RAYMOND, JUDGE, Issues and dissolves injunction 

vs. Creek Nation. 82 

RECORDS, Mississippi Historical.See Bibliography 

RECORDS, Alabama Historical.See Bibliography 

RECORDS of Virginia...See Bibliography 

RED CLOUD, Sioux Chief.87 

His demand for order of removal of his people.87 

RENO, General Custer’s aid at “Little Big Horn” Battle..90 

RIDGE, Cherokee Chief....88 

ROBESON’S, (WINDHAM) “Geneology 

of Pocahontas”.23 

ROSS, Cherokee Chief, descendent of Ross 

Clan, Scotland.88 

ROGERS, Cherokee Chief......88 

ROGERS, WILLIAM, Stage-rope-stunt.....88 

ROLFE, JOHN, Marries Pocahontas.11 

He takes her to England.13 

Returns to Virginia after her death.22 

ROLFE, TOM, Son of Pocahontas. 13 

ROLFE, DAVID, Uncle and foster-father of Tom Rolfe..22 

SEQUOYAH, Cherokee genius.29-91 

Devised Cherokee Syllabary.91 

SELLS, CATO, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 

Foot-note 2. 37 

SITTING BULL, Chief of the Sioux.89 

His successful strategy in the Battle of 

“Littl* 'g Horn”. 89 

RC 1 0. 5 
































INDEX 


115 


Page 

SMITH, CAPTAIN JOHN, Father of 

Jamestown Colony.2 

His capture by Powhatan.3 

His letter to Queen Anne extolling Pocahontas.14 

His meeting with Pocahontas at English Court..'....19 

SPAULDING, COL. H. B., ‘‘PaP' of General Porter.86 

SULLIVAN, GENERAL, Foot-note 1.33 

SWAIN, JUDGE ORLANDO, See Author’s Preface.V 

TECUMSEH, Shawnee Chief, his personal sketch.92 

His visit to the Creeks and fore-tells a comet.47 

His debate with Apushmataha.48-49 

TISHOMINGO, or Tishominco, the Chickasaw’s 

“George Washington”. 92 

VARDEMAN, SENATOR. 7G 

WASHINGTON, GENERAL GEORGE, Foot-note 1....33 

WAYNE, GENERAL, See Foot-note 1.‘.32 j 

WILSON, MRS. WOODROW.23 

WEBSTER, DANIEL, His Indian blood.45 
























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